How does the Constitution relate to the American legal system?
Well, that’s a fairly broad question so I’m guessing a bit at your meaning. The Constitution is the authority for our legal system, the framework within which it exists. It created the third branch of the government, the judicial branch, and spelled out fairly specifically what it could do. As far as the actual interpretation and enforcement of laws goes, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and all federal, state and local laws must be compliant with the framework the Constitution provides. The more detailed aspects of our legal system – how many justices there will be and how courts will be designed and judges appointed are left to the Congress and the states. When Congress passed two different Judiciary Acts in 1789 and 1801, they were constructing the details of the legal system, yet still operating under the Constitutional framework and its authority.
