Powers of Congress to Restrict Judicial Activism:

The authority of the Congress to regulate and reform the U.S. Court system is based on the following clauses in the Constitution:

Article 1, Section 8, Clause: 9: The Congress shall have Power. . . To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; this power is reiterated in Article 3, Section 1.

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 18: The Congress shall have Power . . . To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the . . . Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Article 3, Section 2, Clause 2: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases . . . the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

Practical applications:

Congress has the power to:

1) Define the jurisdictions of district and appellate courts and restrict the appellate jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court,

2) Require that the U.S. Supreme Court make unanimous decisions before issuing certain types of rulings,

3) Require that cases challenging the constitutionality of acts of Congress be heard exclusively by en banc panels,

4) Require that federal courts use a specific constitutional commentary, of Congress' choice, when applying the Constitution,

5) Regulate how the appellate docket of the Supreme Court is scheduled, and exercise greater control as to which cases come before the court,

6) Review and enact legislation regulating the issuance of writs by courts; i.e. defining appropriate circumstances and acceptable purposes for the issuance of writs. Likewise, Congress has authority to determine whether writs issued by courts should expire after a certain period of time, and

7) Wrest the authority to make judicial ethics rules away from the Judicial Branch and vest it in themselves. Congress could then create an ethical requirement that judges interpret the Constitution according to original intent or original understanding.