The Supreme Court continues to address cases where the decision turns on the intricate interpretation of a single word in a statute or regulation. But increasingly the cases that most engage the justices and that matter most to the court are about interpreting the Constitution and its allocation of power.
In Citizens United, in which the court unleashed corporate, union and other money into electoral politics, the majority overturned a century of precedent that it had twice recently reaffirmed. It did so by moving past the limited controversy that was actually in the case and deciding a sweeping issue of constitutional law that no party had raised for the justices to consider.
It also inserted itself where the court has said it should be most restrained, deferring to other branches with more competence to decide questions about the workings of politics, including about the role of money.
thank you lincoln
:<)