According to this link the Supreme Court does not have the power to decide the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the actions of the other 2 branches of government. It says that the idea of "judicial supremecy" was invented and advanced by "social darwinists" in the late 19th century who tried to use the court to dismantle business regulations they didn't like. And from there the idea was picked up by the "progressives" and their revisionist historian lackeys in the early 20th century who sought to use the court as a tool to dismantle traditional morality ("tradition" after all is the oppposite of "progress").
According to this author there is no branch of government with a constitutional mandate to review or oversee the constitutionality of the actions of the other branches. In other words whenever the Supreme Court declares something to be unconstitutional... the court is taking an unconstitutional action by making the declaration. It's not the SCOTUS's job.
... which is scary, but the author is somewhat convincing (to a legal layperson at least).
Why does all this matter? First, during the past half-century, the Court has rendered dozens of politically charged decisions with dubious legal and historical backing. Most of these decisions would be inconceivable without the enlargement of judicial power that the Marbury myth supports. Second, and more important, the separation of powers has been unbalanced by judicial supremacy. Throughout the first century and a half of our national existence, constitutional interpretation was performed continuously by all three branches of the federal government — by Congress and the president as much as by the Court.
Third, and most important, American democracy itself has been compromised.
Imagine that... each branch of government policing itself for constitutionality of its actions... who'da thunk it. Who in their right mind would expect (let alone trust) today's congress or executive to police itself for constitutionality. Yeah right!
For most people that idea that the supreme court isn't meant to rule on constitutionality will come as a major shock... I know it shocked me. After all if the SCOTUS can't bar the door to this insanity then who can? It also goes to illustrate just exactly how effective the gambit to grant the court this oversight has been as well as how effective the inmates have been in taking over the assylum.
... we are compromised indeed.
Update:
here are some relevant quotes from Jefferson"
“You seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges … and their power are the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and are not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves….When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves….” Thomas Jefferson
“If “the judiciary is the last resort in relation to the other departments of the government,” … , then indeed is our Constitution a complete felo de so. … The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they may please (Living Constitution). It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law…” Thomas Jefferson
