A judiciary without checks or balances is in our very near future.

Must an Independent Judiciary be a Unilateral Judiciary?
Carroll Andrew Morse, TCS Original Article

Two recent cases, taken together, reveal a systemic problem with the American court system. In Roper v. Simmons, a juvenile death penalty case, the court asserted a right to base it decisions on sources other than law, appealing to both international law and an even murkier "evolving standard of decency". The effect is to deny the other branches of government the ability to check the power of the courts by establishing rules before the courts enter a situation. In the Terri Schiavo case, the federal judiciary cited the precedent of Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, which expressly denies the right of the other branches of government to check the power of the courts after they have made a decision.