There are times when government isn’t boring.

For instance, there was that time the president got angry over a court decision.

“I may not know much about law,” he thundered, “but I do know one can put the fear of God into judges.”

That is not a leak from the Trump White House. It was President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, furious over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Lochner v. the People of the State of New York.

Joseph Lochner, who owned a bakery, was convicted of violating a New York state labor law that said bakery employees could not be required or allowed to work more than 60 hours in one week.

The Supreme Court said that law was unconstitutional. Justice Rufus Wheeler Peckham wrote for the court, “The general right to make a contract in relation to his business is part of the liberty of the individual protected by the 14th Amendment of the Federal Constitution.”

President Roosevelt didn’t see it that way, and sure enough, the “liberty of contract” doctrine had a very short life.

Who’s in charge when the president and the courts disagree about the meaning of the law or the Constitution? What if the courts interpret the law to mean the opposite of what Congress wrote? What if the president defies the courts?

You might be surprised at the tools that are available to repair a broken government.

One is the Exceptions Clause. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to make “exceptions” to the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. In other words, lawmakers can strip the federal judiciary’s power to review certain types of cases.

The American people would have to be pretty angry about a court ruling before Congress would actually pass a law under the Exceptions Clause, although there have been a few attempts.

Some people on the left were angry over the 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. There was talk of stripping the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over campaign finance law. Some people on the right were angry over state court rulings upholding same-sex marriage. In 2004, the House voted to deny the federal courts jurisdiction to hear some cases about the Defense of Marriage Act.

But not enough people were angry to get either of those court-stripping laws enacted.

The Exceptions Clause is not the only emergency brake installed by the framers in our Constitution. There’s impeachment, and not just for the president. Congress also has the power to impeach federal judges and all civil officers of the United States.

Another way to control the government is by amending the Constitution. The framers gave us two methods: one that’s initiated by Congress, and one that’s initiated by the states in case Congress is part of the problem.

For example, if the American people wanted to amend the Constitution to put term limits on Congress, but Congress refused to do it, an amendment can be proposed by two-thirds of the states. If three-quarters of the state legislatures approve it, the amendment becomes part of the Constitution whether anyone in Washington, D.C., likes it or not. They have no role in the process.

Our rarely used emergency brakes have one thing in common — they only work with overwhelming public support.

That could be why President Trump repeats the message that a particular judge or court is biased, unfair or political.

Maybe he knows what Teddy Roosevelt knew.

Susan Shelley is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. Reach her at Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.

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