Do they have the ability to tell the Courts not to adjudicate legal claims involving state or local laws, policies and regulations involving the "free exercise or establishment of religion" or based upon the "right of privacy", or equal protection issues involving rights to marry regardless of sex or sexual orientation?
Should federal judges be impeached for handling claims of those types?
From the We the People Act, introduced into the House of Representatives on March 4th:
The Supreme Court of the United States and each Federal court--Congress does indeed have the power to determine jurisdiction for the courts, though there may be some limitations to that power when it comes to issues under the constitution. The truth is that federal judicial jurisdiction is a complex subject. I'm not sure that you can frame and limit it as simply as the proposed legislation does.
(1) shall not adjudicate--
(A) any claim involving the laws, regulations, or policies of any State or unit of local government relating to the free exercise or establishment of religion;
(B) any claim based upon the right of privacy, including any such claim related to any issue of sexual practices, orientation, or reproduction; or
(C) any claim based upon equal protection of the laws to the extent such claim is based upon the right to marry without regard to sex or sexual orientation; and
(2) shall not rely on any judicial decision involving any issue referred to in paragraph (1).
A nice introduction to the powers and jurisdiction of the Federal Courts is a guide from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts called Understanding the Federal Courts. It doesn't get into complicated issues invoving congressional oversight of judicial activities.
The American Judicature Society has a brief discussion online about the power of Congress to change the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. Here's a snippet from that page:
When Congress uses its power to determine jurisdiction it is often attempting to change constitutional law without complying with the procedural rules for amending the constitution. Since constitutional amendments are difficult to get passed, Congress will often attempt to alter court decisions by changing jurisdiction. Congressional attempts to circumvent the established means of registering dissatisfaction with the courts do not effectively remove the offensive rulingAnother interesting article on the subject of the stripping of jusridiction from the Courts looks at how such a limitation of jurisidiction might limit the ability of the Supreme Court to supervise other federal courts. See: Jurisdiction-Stripping and the Supreme Court's Power to Supervise Inferior Tribunals.
How much power does the Congress have over federal jurisdiction of the Courts? How much of the Courts power is granted directly through the constitution, and possibly limited in its ability to be curtailed by Congress? How effective is the type of legislation proposed, and how likely is it that it will move from proposal to law?