A group representing Los Angeles and other cities asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to invalidate action by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature that will dissolve redevelopment agencies in California unless they pay the state $1.7 billion.
In the last eight terms, the court has invoked free-speech principles to invalidate actions of other branches of government in no fewer than 25 cases.
Democracies old and new have emulated the separation of powers and the idea of a constitutional court with the authority to review and invalidate actions of the other branches.
"Indeed, federal courts routinely review the constitutionality of — and even invalidate — actions taken by the executive to promote national security, and have done so even in times of conflict," the panel added.
The act had been used successfully just once before this year, because it usually is only relevant when the presidency shifts parties and a new administration wants to invalidate actions of a previous one.
Newt Gingrich's recent pontifications about constitutional law have one redeeming quality -- they offer a teaching opportunity about the beginnings of our democracy, and the power of the courts to review and invalidate actions of the other branches of government.
Sinn Fein won a court decision invalidating the action, but Mr. Trimble is appealing it.
Decisions such as Liebmann and Tanner, supra, invalidating legislative action, are hardly in point here.
This Essay traces the rise and fall of its best-known variant restraint in invalidating legislative action as unconstitutional as advocated by the "School of Thayer," consisting of James Bradley Thayer and the influential judges and law professors who claimed to be his followers.
This Essay traces the rise and fall of its best-known variant restraint in invalidating legislative action as unconstitutional-as advocated by the "School of Thayer, " consisting of James Bradley Thayer and the influential judges and law professors who claimed to be his followers.
Black believed that the equal protection clause could not be introduced as a means to invalidate state action, unless that action involved civil rights or racial discrimination.
