How can the Supreme Court impact the work of the president and the Congress?

The Supreme Court of the United States cannot directly impact the work of the president or of the Congress.  The Court could not, for example, have looked over President Obama’s shoulder while he was trying to get “Obamacare” passed and told him which parts of the law were and were not constitutional.  The Court as a whole and the justices as individuals do not tell Congress what kinds of laws they think should or should not be passed.  Instead, the Court can only act after Congress has passed bills and the president has signed them into law.

However, both Congress and the president are aware that the Supreme Court might have a chance to rule on any laws that they pass.  Therefore, the Court can affect them indirectly.  The elected officials can have the Court in the back of their minds as they write legislation.  They might look at Court decisions to see what kinds of laws they think the Court might allow and what kinds it might strike down.  In other words, the Court can impact the work of Congress and the president because, when those elected officials are writing laws, they have to consider what might or might not pass muster with the justices.