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Importance of the supreme court
The supreme court and the role flashcards
Importance of the supreme court
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The power of the court allows the judges to decide what is constitutional. This power gives the court the power to make final decisions on certain situations. This might be a problem if it goes against the majority view of the people of the United States. For example, a majority of Americans want firearm regulations. However, the government — and quite possibly the Supreme Court — seems to try to ignore this topic whenever it comes up. Public opinion should be taken into account in this situation, but instead politicians seem to ignore public opinion, most likely because of their political donors. Instead of allowing the government — especially the Supreme Court — to only make decisions based on their donors, officials should make decisions
The Hollow Hope examines the following research question: when can judicial processes be used to produce social change? (Rosenberg 1). Rosenberg starts out the book by describing the two different theories of the courts. The first theory, the Dynamic Court view, views the court as being powerful, vigorous, and potent proponents of change (Rosenberg 1). The second theory, the Constrained Court view, views the court in the complete opposite way. With this view the court is seen as weak, ineffective, and powerless (Rosenberg 3). In this view there are three different constraints that restrict the courts from producing effective political and social change. These constraints include: limited nature of constitutional rights, lack of judicial independence, and the lack of tools the courts need (Rosenberg 35). Even though there are constraints on the court there are conditions where the court is able to overcome the constraints.
According to John Acton in 1887, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”, meaning that if unlimited power is given to any one person, they can be corrupted by it. The framers of the Constitution recognized this and built in a plan to prevent this from happening and a result of this, the Constitution spreads power equally between the three branches of government: The Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. These built-in checks and balances are very important to our government, because they keep one branch from gaining too much power over another. This balance of power prevents any branch of our government from being “corrupted absolutely”. This thesis will argue that this part of the Constitution is as important today as it was when first
armbands was a silent form of expression and that students do not have to give
According to Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 78: “This independence of the judges is equally requisite to guard the Constitution and the rights of individuals from the effects of those ill humors, which the arts of designing men, or the influence of particular conjunctures, sometimes disseminate among the people themselves, and which, though they speedily give place to better information, and more deliberate reflection, have a tendency, in the meantime, to occasion dangerous innovations in the government, and serious oppressions of the minor party in the community(Hamilton, Page 8).” The influence of public opinion legislation may be affected by the social majority and violate the constitution, at the same time, this kind of undesirable tendency may cause unfair or biased act violations of human rights. So the judge independence is an important consideration to protect society from the tyranny of the majority of people of this kind of undesirable tendency of incidental. A judge determined not only can reduce the harm of such bill has passed, and can contain the legislature
In William Hudson’s book, American Democracy in Peril, he writes about different “challenges” that play a vital role in shaping the future of the United States. One is the problem of the “imperial judiciary”. Hudson defines its as that the justice system in the United States has become so powerful that it is answering and deciding upon important policy questions, questions that probably should be answered by our democratic legislatures. Instead of having debates in which everyone’s voices are heard and are considered in final decision-making process, a democratic-like process; we have a single judge or a small group of judges making decisions that effect millions of citizens, an “undemocratic” process. Hudson personally believes the current state of judicialized politics is harming policy decisions in Americans. According to him, the judicial branch is the “least democratic branch”, and ...
I think that it is important to remember that the framers were fairly new at creating a government unlike any other government in the world and their main concern was freedom from government control. It appears that their biggest mistake was not applying the Bill of Rights to the states as well as the national government. It also becomes problematic in that two men, having different political beliefs and opinions, can interpret the same law in very different ways. Thus, the Supreme Court, established in 1789, which consists of the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, is the final interpreter of federal constitutional law. In other words, when there is disagreement concerning constitutional law, the Supreme Court settles it. The power to nominate the Justices is vested in the President of the United States, and appointments are made with the advice and consent of the Senate. This in itself has become conflictual due to affiliations which could certainly sway decisions in favor of one particular political
...it from protecting the rights of minorities and from becoming a true proponent of social change. In conclusion, the Court is a somewhat constrained institution in that it only responds to the demands and whims of society. The Court's dependency upon society for case initiation as well as case enforcement prevents the Court from rendering decisions entirely opposed to societal opinion, thus why the Court can never fully lead social change within the United States. This is why, “at its best the Court operates to confer legitimacy, not simply on the particular and parochial policies of the dominant alliance, but upon the basic patterns of behavior required for the operation of a democracy” (Dahl 295).
The Founders built certain protections for individual rights into this country's founding documents. The United States Constitution was one such document. In particular, such protections guard Americans who hold minority viewpoints from those who side with the majority. For example, the First Amendment protects the right of free speech to ensure that people who hold unpopular views have just as much freedom to express those views as do people who tend to agree with the majority. The United States Constitution, therefore, was intended to protect the individual rights of Americans from a tyrannical government and majority. However, today, the Electoral College does not represent the vibrant democracy into which the United States has grown.
As stated in “How Far is a Judge Free in Rendering a Decision?”, there are “conflicting interests” in society. However, there are times when a Judge could be in doubt and cannot tell that society would have a must more just handle on the matter. I believe that public opinion should act as a backbone in the selection of a Supreme Court nominee, but should not dominate the process. Supreme Court Judges make decisions which affect society as a whole, especially particular groups of people. Society has a vast variety of opinions on a vast array of issues, ranging from abortion to gun control to war. However, some Americans may want a Judge to be on the Court because the Judge has the same opinion as them. They may not take the credentials and past experience of the Judge into consideration, allowing for them to be blinded by their own bias. Americans are also selfish in this sense, by wanting a Judge to serve on the Court because he or she shares the same opinion as them on a particular matter but fails to acknowledge how this opinion could affect the lives of millions. I also think that the Senate would confirm a nominee for a vacancy on the Court if public opinion was factored into the selection, rather than it just being the President’s
The United States is governed by a democracy. According to Dictoinary.com, democracy is “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system” (Dictoinary.com). This means that instead of having a supreme ruler, the citizens of a country have the right to vote for and choose their elected officials who will ultimately make the decisions for them. The benefit of a democracy is that depending on the public’s opinion, they can influence the government to run the way they want. This form of government provided the public with a great amount of freedom, yet is can potentially slow down the efficiency of governmental decisions. In order for a democracy to function well, public opinions must be somewhat similar to avoid gridlock. A democracy is good for public freedom, but must possess certain characteristics to provide effective results.
In no other democracy does a court hold so much political power and in particular power over public policy decisions.
For many years there has been a supreme court that was predominantly white. The first black man, or the non-white man was elected to the supreme court in the year of 1967. There were a bunch of barriers that you had to go through to be a supreme court justice especially if you were not white. Due to the fact that for many many years most of the supreme court justices were white. All of the justices thought and believed in the same thing from day to day. When you were put on the supreme court it was either because of the president, or it was because of the fact that they believed in the same thing. There was really no diversity
The decision reached in Roe vs. Wade had a significant impact on history. The decision to legalize abortion also has a profound impact on society today. Abortion remains a highly debated issue in the U.S. that continues to define politics in the 21st century. Following the Roe vs. Wade decision, 1.6 million women per year underwent abortion procedures. In the 1990’s, ⅕ of women over the age of 15 had an abortion. Abortions are still very common in the U.S today. Roe vs. Wade didn’t end the abortion debate in the U.S. Pro-life and pro-choice movements formed after Roe vs. Wade, and still exist today. They continue to try to get abortion policies to reflect their interests. Many people still have a strong opinion on abortion, and consider themselves
In his novel, “Against Judicial Activism: The Decline of Freedom and Democracy in Canada,” author Rory Leishman explains how judges are essentially “let loose” on the judicial system, and are given freedom to create and interpret any laws they wish, right under society’s nose. Leishman writes, “Today, Canadians are living in a quasi-Orwellian nightmare, where freedom often means slavery and ignorance strengthens activist judges.” Judicial activism, in essence, can be described as the following: “. . . the tendency of courts to invalidate laws enacted by duly elected legislatures, since doing so ostensibly amounts to courts usurping the role of Parliament.” With such inconsistency in judges’ conclusions, the concept that citizens have no power
The doctrine of judicial review which dictates the conditions as per which executive and legislative actions would be reviewed by the judiciary; which also has the power to render them invalid. The acts of the state may be annulled by the power of judicial review, exercised by certain courts when they are found to be non-compliant to higher power, such as constitutional laws. Therefore, the concept of judicial review essentially represents the accountability mechanisms which form part of the modern governmental system (where various governmental branches are checked by the judiciary). Interpretations of this principle vary by jurisdictions, as do the various opinions on hierarchy and norms of government. Resultantly, the scope and procedure of judicial review is subject to change depending on states and countries.