The Constitution includes one check on the federal courts that has largely lain dormant: the power of Congress to remove matters from their jurisdiction

National Review, Oct 25, 2004

* The Constitution includes one check on the federal courts that has largely lain dormant: the power of Congress to remove matters from their jurisdiction. The House has taken a step toward reviving that power, by voting 247-173 for a bill to block federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from ruling on the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Democratic opposition was animated by the post-1960s civics lesson, quite inaccurate as a matter of history, that all our freedoms came from the Supreme Court. (For most of our history, the courts were not active in striking down laws, yet we were free.) Taking issues out of the federal courts leaves state courts with the last judicial say on what the Constitution means. We are under no illusions about the rectitude of many of our state courts. But the damage they do can often be contained in their states, or counteracted by state legislatures. The House has struck a blow for self-government.