We live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Government powers are distributed horizontally between legislative, executive and judicial federal branches and vertically between the federal and state levels.
My argument may be wrong (i.e. the Constitution may, unbeknownst to me, have effective checks on the courts),
The significant applicable clause has come up many, many times at FR: "The supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make." (Art. III, Sec. 2) Like every other power, this may be used for good or evil.
Congress may:
1) Create new avenues for judicial review, as happened during the recent Terry Schiavo case.
2) Remove entire subjects from judicial review. Significant examples include the post-Civil War reconstruction acts (see ex parte Milligan, 1869), the Clinton-Gingrich anti-terror laws passed in 1995 in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, most recently the so-called Patriot Acts (protecting the "National Security Letter" language, basically an end-run around the Fourth Amendment stricture against Writs of Assistance).
I have to agree with Alberta's Child and ditto on this one.
True, but the founding document of this country says, among many other insightful things, that governments derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed. I agree with that philosophy of government, do you?
I will say it again, we have no effective check on the judiciary. Let's look at the Schiavo case. The Congress was totally ineffective in getting he federal courts to review the facts of that case. Or take your other examples. Yes, the Congress can eliminate jurisdiction in some area totally, but that is far too coarse and heavy-handed a control and so they are naturally and justifiably loathe to do it and so it happens only in extreme circumstances.
What is required is a means that gives the courts ample room for deliberation but also keeps five unelected judges from creating policy to which the people do not consent.