ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with the constitutional limitations on the Supreme Court, then turns to the limitations on the Court's power: the process, jurisdiction, justiciability, and checks and balances. It considers how the Court has overcome some of these constraints to exercise power and make public policy. Justi ciability is self-imposed and seems to be a function of the composition of the Court, rather than a philosophical position. The Supreme Court had proven itself to be amenable to broad extensions of constitutional rights, As a consequence, there were a number of attempts to see if the Supreme Court would find the Vietnam War unconstitutional. A potential constraint on the Supreme Court, jurisdiction refers to the authority of a court to hear and decide cases and is, in large part, externally derived. The limits and potential limits on justiciability and jurisdiction are only part of a broader concern with the institutional constraints on the Court.
