American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition, 2014-2015

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Guard to block the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. Ultimately, President

Dwight Eisenhower had to federalize the Arkansas National Guard and send federal troops

to Little Rock to quell the violence that had erupted.

Legislative checks. Courts may make rulings, but often the legislatures at local, state,

and federal levels are required to appropriate funds to carry out the courts’ rulings. A

court, for example, may decide that prison conditions must be improved, but it is up to the

legislature to authorize the funds necessary to carry out the ruling. When such funds are

not appropriated, the court that made the ruling, in effect, has been checked.

Courts’ rulings can be overturned by constitutional amendments at both the federal

and the state levels. For example, the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, rati-

fied in 1913, overturned a United States Supreme Court ruling that found the income tax

to be unconstitutional. Proposed constitutional amendments to reverse court decisions on

school prayer, abortion, and same-sex marriage have failed.

Finally, Congress or a state legislature can rewrite (amend) old laws or enact new ones

to overturn a court’s rulings if the legislature concludes that the court is interpreting laws

or legislative intentions erroneously. For example, in 2009 Congress passed (and President

Obama signed) the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which resets the statute of limitations for

when opinions are deeply divided about an issue, demonstrations often occur in front of the Supreme Court building

in Washington, D.C. Here, protesters show their opposition to a tough new Arizona law targeting illegal immigrants.

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