This time, it's in the "least dangerous branch." According to the WaPo, the Supreme Court has delivered a "dressing down" to the infamously liberal and dangerously rogue 9th Circuit.

In the past two weeks, [the Supreme Court] has been in scold mode.... In five straight cases, the court has rejected the work of the San Francisco-based court without a single affirmative vote from a justice.

But some of the recent reversals have been delivered with a lash that those who closely watch the courts say reflects more than just a disagreement of law. ... [J]ustices said 9th Circuit judges were inserting themselves into cases where they had no business.

The 9th Circuit was let off its leash during Carter's liberal court-packing fiasco in the 1970's. Since then, it has been the poster boy of (liberal) judicial activism, routinely being overturned by the Supreme Court. In the private sector, an inferior division which required such consistent reversals by a superior would quickly find itself the target of massive reform or "downsizing." But liberal judges are performing the will of their appointers when they flout the rule of law in preference of progressive ideology.

In an attempt to curb this tendency in the law (and expand the shellacking of the executive office), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) issued his first oversight letter to the Justice Department. Referencing the Black Panther's voter-intimidation case, Smith writes: "Allegations that the Civil Rights Division has engaged in a practice of race-biased enforcement of voting rights law must be investigated by the Committee." Jennifer Rubin concludes:

The letter is noteworthy on a number of levels. First, administration flacks and liberal bloggers have insisted that the New Black Panther Party case is much to do about nothing. But as Smith has correctly discerned, the issue of enforcement or non-enforcement of civil rights laws based on a non-colorblind view of those laws is serious and a potentially explosive issue for this administration. Second, Holder's strategy of stonewalling during the first two years of Obama's term may have backfired. Had he been forthcoming while Democrats were in the majority, he might have been able to soften the blows; Smith is not about to pull his punches. And finally, Smith is demonstrating the sort of restraint and big-picture focus that is essential for the Republicans if they are to remain credible and demonstrate their capacity for governance.