[Republic If You Can Keep It]

....and force legislatures to actually conduct the business for which they are paid

Maybe I'm missing your point. The legislatures are the ones that passed "Three Strikes" & unelected judges are the ones striking it down.

[Wristpin]

Now I understand why the frenchies had a case of guillotine madness at the Bastille.

[thoughtomator]

In a Constitutional republic, legislatures are constrained by rights they must respect, in this case prohibitions against ex post facto laws, double jeopardy, and excessive punishment, and so on. A legislature cannot pass any law at all and expect it to stand. Because these 3-strikes laws must inevitably breach the 8th Amendment (or the 14th), they won't remain on the books for long.

The legislatures have a responsibility to make sure crimes are punished; they have failed to do so, in permitting inadequate sentencing for crimes; in frustration the people have supported 3-strikes. While I totally agree with the frustration, it is necessary to make laws in accordance with our Constitution regardless of popular passions; that is what distinguishes a republican people from a democratic mob. If the legislatures did their job and crafted laws which properly punished crime, 3-strikes would be moot because practically everyone who qualified would be serving the time they should have been serving in the first place.

[BJungNan]

Maybe I'm missing your point. The legislatures are the ones that passed "Three Strikes" & unelected judges are the ones striking it down.

The legislature is not passing tough enough laws for the crimes that are committed. In that, they are not doing their jobs.

As far as the unelected judges flaunting the law with their rulings - at least those at less than the top court level - the state legislatures simply need to tell them them, sorry, you don't have jurisdiction here and ignore the ruling. The elected representatives most certainly are leaving it up to the courts to make law and abdicating their responsibilities.