[neogodless]

I kind of (OK totally) need a history lesson / refresher. How was the Judicial Branch supposed to function?

Because I don't believe it was supposed to be able to basically override the Legislative Branch. Just like the Executive Branch wasn't supposed to have unchecked power as long as it's "Official" business.

How were the three Branches intended to keep each of the other in check?

[mschuster91]

By everyone doing their job and respecting the authority that the other branches had. Something like an executive outright ignoring court orders (e.g. Joe Arpaio [1]) is as unexpected as the legislative refusing to pass laws because it's gridlocked due to malfeasance on the side of the Republicans. There's a reason why the Supreme Court ended up playing such an important rule: Congress hasn't done shit in decades now, and the same goes for the States, the last Constitutional Amendment was passed in 1992 and the one before that in 1971. Something like the right to abortion should have been enshrined into a constitutional amendment loooong ago. EPA rules should have been set by law, not by executive order. The list goes on and on and on.

And the last failsafe the founders intended was the populace. Officials found breaking the law or be otherwise unfit of office were supposed to be at the very least not reelected by the populace - and yet, Arpaio was reelected for 24 years in a row, Biden was elected (he was better than Trump, but that doesn't mean someone of his age should have been president!), and Trump will most likely be reelected. The voters share a huge part of the blame.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/31/joe-arpaio-c...

[sokoloff]

> Something like the right to abortion should have been enshrined into a constitutional amendment loooong ago.

Indeed, and practically, probably initiated as part of the 95th or 96th Congress (under Carter), when the Democrats had substantial majorities in both houses and obviously the presidency.

My feeling is that this was not done because doing it removes the threat/opportunity of it getting rolled back, and removing that threat/opportunity lessens the fundraising ability of both parties.