Dazzle- "misuse" is a subject term. IMO, for example, the FCC terribly abuses its powers by censoring radio & TV.
I know that 'misuse' is subjective. In fact, if you dig deep enough, just about everything is subjective. But we have to have some consensus of where to draw the line between judicial intervention and the will of the people. Since the 1950s, too many people have been misusing the courts to force through unpopular measures that could never be passed by elected officials, on matters that are not consitutional in nature.
Perhaps, but the key word is "unpopular". In the 1930s a prominent Supreme Court Justice publicly announced that the Constitution was dead, yet whatever issue caused him to make that pronouncement is little debated today. Instead, many people tend to pick out decisions where they personally disagree with the policy outcomes and try to fashion a constitutional argument against it. I'm not saying all people do this, but the people who do are the ones who form the critical mass transforming a legally vulnerable decision that is buried forgotten under a mass of historical court cases, and an equally vulnerable decision that becomes a flashpoint for invective.
And as mentioned, there are many ways of abusing governmental power to censor speech that have nothing to do with courts, such as executive branch regulations through the FCC, for example, or other forms of informal pressure, or bribery, against the press, or corporations.
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