<P> The court has been the object of criticisms on a range of issues . Among them: </P> <P> The Supreme Court has been criticized for not keeping within Constitutional bounds by engaging in judicial activism, rather than merely interpreting law and exercising judicial restraint . Claims of judicial activism are not confined to any particular ideology . An often cited example of conservative judicial activism is the 1905 decision in Lochner v. New York, which has been criticized by many prominent thinkers, including Robert Bork, Justice Antonin Scalia, and Chief Justice John Roberts, and which was reversed in the 1930s . An often cited example of liberal judicial activism is Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion in part on the basis of the "right to privacy" inferred from the Fourteenth Amendment, a reasoning that some critics argued was circuitous . Legal scholars, justices, and presidential candidates have criticized the Roe decision . The progressive Brown v. Board of Education decision has been criticized by conservatives such as Patrick Buchanan and former presidential contender Barry Goldwater . More recently, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was criticized for expanding upon the precedent in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978) that the First Amendment applies to corporations . Lincoln warned, referring to the Dred Scott decision, that if government policy became "irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers ." Former justice Thurgood Marshall justified judicial activism with these words: "You do what you think is right and let the law catch up ." During different historical periods, the Court has leaned in different directions . Critics from both sides complain that activist - judges abandon the Constitution and substitute their own views instead . Critics include writers such as Andrew Napolitano, Phyllis Schlafly, Mark R. Levin, Mark I. Sutherland, and James MacGregor Burns . Past presidents from both parties have attacked judicial activism, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan . Failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork wrote: "What judges have wrought is a coup d'état,--slow - moving and genteel, but a coup d'état nonetheless ." Senator Al Franken quipped that when politicians talk about judicial activism, "their definition of an activist judge is one who votes differently than they would like ." One law professor claimed in a 1978 article that the Supreme Court is in some respects "certainly a legislative body ." </P> <P> Court decisions have been criticized for failing to protect individual rights: the Dred Scott (1857) decision upheld slavery; Plessy v Ferguson (1896) upheld segregation under the doctrine of separate but equal; Kelo v. City of New London (2005) was criticized by prominent politicians, including New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, as undermining property rights . Some critics suggest the 2009 bench with a conservative majority has "become increasingly hostile to voters" by siding with Indiana's voter identification laws which tend to "disenfranchise large numbers of people without driver's licenses, especially poor and minority voters", according to one report . Senator Al Franken criticized the Court for "eroding individual rights ." However, others argue that the Court is too protective of some individual rights, particularly those of people accused of crimes or in detention . For example, Chief Justice Warren Burger was an outspoken critic of the exclusionary rule, and Justice Scalia criticized the Court's decision in Boumediene v. Bush for being too protective of the rights of Guantanamo detainees, on the grounds that habeas corpus was "limited" to sovereign territory . </P> <P> This criticism is related to complaints about judicial activism . George Will wrote that the Court has an "increasingly central role in American governance ." It was criticized for intervening in bankruptcy proceedings regarding ailing carmaker Chrysler Corporation in 2009 . A reporter wrote that "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's intervention in the Chrysler bankruptcy" left open the "possibility of further judicial review" but argued overall that the intervention was a proper use of Supreme Court power to check the executive branch . Warren E. Burger, before becoming Chief Justice, argued that since the Supreme Court has such "unreviewable power" it is likely to "self - indulge itself" and unlikely to "engage in dispassionate analysis". Larry Sabato wrote "excessive authority has accrued to the federal courts, especially the Supreme Court ." </P>

What are the major criticisms of the court system in the united states today