Can Congress supersede the Supreme Court?

Answer 1

They're not supposed to, but yes, sometimes Congress does ignore a Supreme Court decision (at least for awhile) if they disagree with it and can create an obstruction by failing to pass supporting legislation. Many decisions are self-executing, however, and would require Congress to take action to prevent the ruling from being enforced, which is much more difficult.

Additionally, the Executive branch is responsible for ensuring the Supreme Court's orders are enforced. If the President agrees with the Supreme Court, he or she is more likely to pressure a reluctant Congress to cooperate.

In some cases, as with the early Civil Rights Movement, neither the Executive nor Legislative branch wants to support a major change in public policy. In the mid-1950s and 1960, Congress and President Eisenhower resisted many of the Warren Court's civil rights decisions, taking action only when pressured by the public and media. This resulted in many years' delay ending segregation and enacting equal rights legislation.

Answer 2

No. Congress, alone, cannot supersede a US Supreme Court decision; under the United States' system of checks and balances, the Supreme Court is the final authority on constitutionality.

Congress may respond in one of two ways:

1. They can rewrite the nullified law and bring it into constitutional compliance.
2. They may propose an amendment and attempt to override the Court's decision by a two-thirds of each house of Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) followed by ratification of 75% within a given deadline (seven years is common). Constitutional amendment is a slow and difficult process and is rarely chosen as a means of dealing with an unpopular decision, although this method has been used successfully on occasion.

There are only two ways a Supreme Court decision may be changed:

1. By constitutional amendment, as described above;
2. By a decision of the Supreme Court (which has full authority to overturn its own prior rulings). This is most likely to happen as the composition and ideology of the Court changes over time.