When Congress Can Reverse the Supreme Court

When is the Supreme Court the law of the land and when is legislative overruling of the Supreme Court appropriate? Today President Obama signed his first bill into law as President. The bill dealt with equal pay for women. More specifically, it dealt with an instance where the Supreme Court interpreted a federal law one way, and Congress turned around and passed a new law which basically said that the Supreme Court's interpretation was wrong (by the way, this is what is meant by legislative overruling). Can Congress do that? Sure, but only when Congress is reversing the Court's interpretation of a FEDERAL LAW. It is different, however, if the Court says that a federal violated the U.S. Constitution. This is what is meant by the Supreme Court is the law of the land. The Court and only the Court has the last say on what is and what is not constitutional. But not every matter deals with the Constitution, and quite often the Court is merely asked to interpret a federal law that has nothing to do with the Constitution. The website Scotusblog has more.