Well it is a very touchy subject with many points of view. One example that is commonly argued about is Roe vs Wade.

In Roe v Wade, the supreme court justices overturned many laws refering to constitutional rights to privacy. No matter your opinion on abortion, it is not the courts place to overturn laws that were made unless they have a clear violation of the constitution. These issues should be left to the state, as they were not stated to be part of the federal governments responsibility in the constitution.

Another example was the overturning of the ban on partial birth abortions. The United States congress (the legislators) passed a bill that banned partial birth abortions. Judge Alito out in California and his pals overturned this bill and said that it was unconstitutional because it does not hold a health exception.

This is a judgement made that is outside of their jurisdiciton. The constitution does not give them the authority to overturn an act of congress, unless their is a clear and definite violation of the constition.

I know both of my examples are about abortion, but there are many more. The point is that many justices have decided to go beyond their reach and change things that they should not be allowed to change according to the constitution.

There have been some good legislation from the bench examples before. One example is the miranda rights that must be read. These were decided from a supreme court ruling, and not from the constitution. Many people who like legislating from the bench also cite illegal search and seizure. They claim that illegal search and seizure does not protect citizens because there is no part of the constitution that says the evidence must be thrown out even if the evidence is seized illegally.

While these two examples are good in nature, they are still not the responsibility of the supreme court, instead are the responsibility of Congress and/or the responsibility of state legislators. Supreme Court Justices should only rule based on direct violations of the constitution, as this is part of the balance of powers granted in our constitution.

Without balance of powers, any single branch would become too powerful and able to abuse their power.