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See Marbury v. Madison
Yes, I've read the summary of Marbury v. Madison before, thank you, Marianne. I believe this to to be one of the earliest acts of "legislation from the bench." Before Marshal decided that he could rule on the Constitutionality of a law, the power didn't belong to the Supreme Court. His decision "set a precedent," and the newly claimed power, though never assigned to the Judicial Branch by the Constitution, has been accepted as the exclusive province of the Supreme Court ever since.
From the link -
"...In 1801, having lost the recent Congressional and Presidential elections, the Federalists in Congress passed a judiciary act which created a number of new federal judgeships. Before leaving office President John Adams took the opportunity thus created to appoint a number of Federalists to these newly created positions. At the same time he appointed Secretary of State John Marshall as Chief Justice of the United States.
One of Marshall's last tasks as Secretary was to deliver a warrant to one William Marbury who had been appointed as a judge in the District of Columbia, which through oversight he failed to do. When Jefferson arrived in the White House, being skeptical of the power of judges to begin with and disturbed by all the new Federalist judges just appointed ordered his Secretary of State, James Madison, to withhold warrants not yet given.
Under a clause of the Judiciary Act of 1789, Marbury sued for his warrant in the Supreme Court. Thus Marshall was faced with a difficult decision-if he ordered the warrant delivered, and Jefferson (through Madison) refused, there was little the Court could do. Its power would be thus weakened, which would have pleased Jefferson.
Instead, Marshall found that portion of the Judiciary Act under which Marbury was acting to be unconstitutional, thus claiming for the court the right of "judicial review,"-the power of the court to rule laws passed by Congress unconstitutional, when they arrived in the Court as the result of a suit..."