Several modern cases have required the Judicial
Branch to apply the checks and balances principle to unconstitutional actions by the other branches of government. In 1983, the Supreme Court prohibited the Legislative Branch from vetoing decisions issued by the Executive Branch (as represented by the Attorney
General) arising in the Reagan administration and later, in 1998, by applying the separation of powers doctrine to the diametrically opposite side of the same general issue, in prohibiting the delegation of congressional legislative authority to the president during the Clinton administration (Friedman, 2005).
Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988):
The case arose during the Reagan administration when President Reagan
Instructed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and components of the U.S.
Department of Justice to furnish documents formally subpoenaed by the House of Representatives in connection with its investigation of issues relating to enforcement of law, specifically, the Superfund law (Friedman, 2005). After the committees established by the House of Representatives to investigate the Superfund issues determined that Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, Ted Olson, may have perjured himself in front of the House Judiciary Committee, the Committee Chairman requested the appointment...
(2002). Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York: Little Brown.
Friedman, L. (2005). A History of American Law. New York: Touchstone. Hall, K. (Ed.) (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press
