In Federalist No. 51, Publius (James Madison in that number) predicted that in a well-constructed separation of powers, “the interest of the man” occupying an office would be “connected to the constitutional rights of the place,” i.e., the powers of that office he occupied. So it is no surprise that in speaking Thursday to a luncheon of the National Italian American Foundation, Justice Antonin Scalia told conservative congressmen, who agree with him about the impropriety of relying on foreign law in constitutional rulings, to lay off and leave the battle on the Supreme Court to him.

“I’m darned if it’s up to Congress to direct the court how to make its decisions,” he said. Quite right. It’s one thing for Congress to legislate what cases the Court can hear, what remedies are available to litigants, and so forth. It’s quite another for Congress to dictate outcomes, or forbid certain jurisprudential principles from being employed.

Congressman Tom Feeney (R.-Fla.), who admires Scalia, insists that the justice “needs our help, even if he doesn’t want it.” But the help Feeney is trying to give is a nonbinding resolution—a congressional exercise in symbolism and no more. So on the one hand we have Scalia worrying out loud about the Congress trying to do something. And on the other hand we have Feeney attempting to do pretty much nothing.

Maybe they can just agree to agree, and call it a day. The separation of powers is safe for now.