Judicial oversight

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Judicial oversight describes an aspect of the separation of powers prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, specifically the process whereby independent courts may review and restrain actions of the administrative and legislative branches. Such oversight is now common in other constitutional democracies.

In the United States, the national legislature has recently passed legislation aiming at reducing the discretion of the judiciary, specifically in the area of criminal sentencing (see Bureau of Prisons Rule. The United States Supreme Court has determined some of these laws to be unconstitutional, as in United States v. Booker (2005).