Not sure that "negative" is precise.

We tend to idealize the SC, mostly because their rulings (historically) rarely affected contemporaneous daily life. However since the Warren Court's shift to political responsiveness, the SC has gained prominence. Also, we tend to view the SC as being academic and philosophical and give them unearned stature. In the most recent 100 years or so the SC has had the ability to overrule the other two branches. This is an historical abberration.

Previously the people and other two branches feared the SC because they were unelected, lifetime appointees which was (at that time) a throw-back to nobility, a form of government firmly rejected in 1776, 1781 and the somewhat contemporaneous yet derivative, "droits d homme."

Currently the SC is undergoing another reallignment in which it is trying to stick itself back into a corset which it has outgrown--the attempted shift to a less activist, more contemplaive court.

Hope this helps.

B