Legislators consider fixes to Supreme Court rulings

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/legislators-consider-fixes-to-supreme-court-rulings-2007-06-27.html

Legislators consider fixes to Supreme Court rulings
By Elana Schor
June 27, 2007

As the Supreme Court’s term winds to a close this week, lawmakers are mulling the future of a thriving breed of bill: the high court “fix.”

Members of both parties are pressing or planning at least six bills to clarify recent Supreme Court rulings, signaling what may become a new era of congressional sensitivity to court decisions that can be remedied with legislation.

“What the court’s saying to us is, you have to write down every single little thing you want done,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said. Congress should not have to step in often to address the court’s interpretation of statutes, he added, “but I’m afraid we may be moving in that direction.”

Harkin is spearheading measures to counter two of this term’s most contentious rulings, one that limited workers’ window to sue for pay discrimination and another that exempted home healthcare aides from minimum-wage rules. The House bill to mend the former decision, Ledbetter v. Goodyear, will be marked up today by Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.).

Lawmakers have written bills responding to the Supreme Court for decades, and the high number of recent offerings is hardly a new phenomenon. But the rare confluence of a high court drifting to the right and a Congress under Democratic control gives extra urgency to the current crop of legislation.

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NGU.

Supreme Court judges in order to overcome Bush's two picks for the Supreme Court. This probably won't happen until the Dem's take the White House in Jan. 09 but it needs to happen.

ww

FDR tried and even he couldn't do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_packing