- Lawmakers pass thelaws, but it's the court

that decides whether they'reconstitutional and can stand.

The executive branch executes those laws,

but the court decides

whether it's doing it constitutionally.

And the only way to go over its head,

is to amend the Constitution,which takes 3/4 of the states.

The court has the power of life and death.

Rare is the execution withouta justice signing off on it.

And if any citizen can gettheir case before the court,

it can literally changethe courts of the nation.

Take Roe v. Wade, wherethe justices suddenly found

in the 14th Amendment right to privacy,

a woman can abort her baby.

60 million abortions followed.

Or gay marriage, it was illegalin almost all the states,

except with one ruling, thecourt legalized it nationwide.

It's because of this kind of power

that the leanings of a new andninth justice are so crucial,

because right now, the court's divided,

four leaning liberal,four leaning conservative.

Paul Strands, CBN News, Washington.