Legal Commentary

In the course of an on-blog joint effort to "decode[]" Christine O'Donnell, Slate's senior editor and frequent commentator on things legal and Court-related, Dahlia Lithwick, writes:

 I have been fascinated by Christine O'Donnell's constitutional worldview since her debate with her opponent Chris Coons last week. O'Donnell explained that "when I go to Washington, D.C., the litmus test by which I cast my vote for every piece of legislation that comes across my desk will be whether or not it is constitutional." How weird is that, I thought. Isn't it a court's job to determine whether or not something is, in fact, constitutional? And isn't that sort of provided for in, well, the Constitution? In 2003, O'Donnell said of the Supreme Court that "it's kind of like we have the nine people sitting there in Washington who have a constitutional monarchy and that is an abuse of the system." So I do wonder a little whether she's claiming that her view of what's constitutional trumps theirs. Not a lot of space for checks and balances in that reading. . . .

It somehow upsets the Constitution's system of "checks and balances" -- it's constitutionally "weird" -- for a legislator to take into account her view concerning a measure's constitutionality when deciding whether or not to vote for that bill?  (Note to first-year students looking ahead to Con Law:  It doesn't.  See, e.g., Art. VI.)