(July 1, 2012 at 5:30 am)cratehorus Wrote: SO you see the supreme court always makes the right decision in the end
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio
That's further than I could go. The supreme court is charged with determining the correct interpretation of the constitution so that laws may not be passed which are not in accord with it. So, by definition, their rulings do have the effect of defining what is constitutional. We can argue that their motivations were political or racist or something other than the well reasoned interpretation based on the constitution .. and we would sometimes be correct. But being the "supreme" court, their rulings are the final say on what is or is not constitutional .. even when they are mistaken until such time as they themselves make that correction.
So no they don't always make the "right" decision and they can go wrong for a number of reasons. But their decisions always officially decide what is or is not permissible constitutionally.