Cage match

Mark Kleiman lines up Tom DeLay's latest rant, in which he opines, among other things, that "The reason we had judicial review is because Congress didn't stop them" against old Al Hamilton and Federalist #78. Mark quotes Hamilton more extensively, but this excerpt pretty well covers my case in support of the courts.

...It is not otherwise to be supposed, that the Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents. It is far more rational to suppose, that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority. The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents.

Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of the judicial to the legislative power. It only supposes that the power of the people is superior to both; and that where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental.

The United States Constitution was ordained by neither gods nor governors, but by We The People. It is our bulwark against tyranny, defining the limits of government activity in a wide shpere. We look to the courts for relief when any officer of the goverment oversteps those Constitutional limits. They are a human institution, hence flawed and subject to attack from many quarters, but defending them against the destructionist assault is a worth cause for progressives.