The U.S. Supreme Court, also known as SCOTUS is the highest federal court within the United States. This congregation of power maintains jurisdiction over all federal and state court cases which involve federal law. The Supreme Court was established 228 years ago by the constitution in the year of 1789 on June, 21. Within article three of the constitution, the powers of the Supreme Court are listed in detail. Article three within the constitution states, “The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme court, and such inferior courts as the congress may from time to time ordain and establish”. Ultimately the Supreme Court makes the final decision in regards to the federal constitutional laws. This decisions are carried out with the the United States Supreme Court Building which is located in Washington, D.C. The Supreme court is the only court established by the constitution and consists of eight members which are formally titled Chief Justices. The Chief Justices are all nominations made by the president that occupies the office. These nominations must then be confirmed by the senate. After the clearance from the senate, the individuals that are then appointed as Chief Justices and maintain life tenure unless they retire or resign …show more content…
or are removed due to impeachment. In U.S. history, No Chief justice has ever been impeached thus far. The current Chief Justices of the United States are John Roberts, Jr., Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. In the 19th century, all the justices were men of European descent and almost always Protestant.
This brought about concerns pertaining to diversity, citizens began to suggests that the Supreme Court should represent all regions of the country and consists of more individuals with various religious, ethnic, and gender backgrounds. As of recently, the Court currently has five men and three women justices. One justice is African American male, another is Latina female, and the remaining six are non-Hispanic Caucasian. Five of the justices are Roman Catholics, and three are Jewish. Every current justice has an Ivy League background and the average age of all the justices combined are approximately 69 years
old. The Chief Justices Aforementioned, are often described as having conservative, moderate and liberal views in regards to law and judicial interpretation. Their most important task is to Interpret constitutional law and ultimately finalize the decision on the highest profile court cases that have caused or cause confusion and controversy in respects to the rules set by the constitution. Each Chief Justice has one vote to determine the outcome of a court case. The Supreme Court also maintains the power to determine laws as unconstitutional. Though this may hold true, The Supreme Court has been criticized for failing to maintain Constitutional bounds allowing personal and political considerations influence their decisions rather than interpreting the law and exercising judicial restraint. With that being said, the Supreme Court is not immune. Lower federal courts and states courts may in fact resist some of the alterations made by the Supreme Court. A controversial decision made by the Supreme Court is one known as Plessy v. Ferguson. In this decision, the controversy was that the Court upheld the doctrine known as Separate but equal. Within this doctrine was the upholding of racial segregation which was a violation of human rights. The doctrine aforementioned, was upheld and maintained until the Supreme Court countered their decision in 1954 and declared segregation unconstitutional.
1. The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court and other various courts system at the federal, state, and local level. As I mentioned before the Supreme Court Justices are nominated the President of the United States, but the Senate must also approve them with at least 51 out of the 100 possible votes (“Branches of Government”). There is no specific term length of a Supreme Court Justice, once appointed, they will have that position for life or until they decide to retire.
The Supreme Court is the highest judicial body in the United States. Since its creation in 1789, 112 justices have served on the Court. Of these 112 justices, four of them are women. President Ronald Reagan appointed the first female justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, in 1981; she served for 25 years. Sandra Day O’Connor changed the face of women in politics.
It did not originally have the power of judicial review until 1803 in the case of Marbury vs. Madison (Young, 283), which then gave the Supreme Court the power to interpret the Constitution and overrule any law or action that was unconstitutional. As part of the political system, the selection of judges has choice of the President and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, federal Judges are in the seat until they resign or die and are independent of the President's influence. (Burns, 360-361) For example, the chief justice of the United States is appointed and holds tenure for life.
There are 7 justices and 1 chief justice within the high court. 7 justices will be required for constitutional cases and 5 justices are required for cases in regards to different matters.
The Supreme Court and Federal court have the same authority as in the Constitution. This system is called checks and balances which prevents the sole power of any one of the three branches. In addition, this power can be divided between the states and Federal government. The Federal government’s role in “domestic and foreign affairs and how they have grown” (Fe...
Presently the supreme court has nine members, which include one Chief Justice and eight associate Justices. The Chief Justice Appoints each associate Justice to oversee one or more various circuits. Every year the Supreme Court has a term in which it revues selected cases. This term starts on the first Monday of October and ends either in the end of June or the beginning of July. During this term the Justices review one-hundred out of 6,000 or so cases with no clear guidelines on which ones they must look at.
The Supreme Court of the United States has the highest authority in the Judicial Branch and is the third branch of government. The function of the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution. The Supreme Court looks at federal and state statues and executive actions to determine if they comply with the United States Constitution. On the Supreme Court, there are nine justices that hear cases that have been appealed through the justice system. When the Supreme Court rules in a case that is the la...
... their rulings. They do not make the laws; that is the job of Congress. Their primary goal is to interpret and decide the constitutionality of federal law. As stated previously from Section 1 of Article 3 of the Constitution about the establishment of the Supreme Court and creation of the lower federal courts, the combination of these court systems represents the original Framer’s compromise to establish a national court and allow state courts to exercise jurisdiction in disputes falling under federal law.
In 1789, the final draft of the constitution of the United States came into effect. In article three it calls for "[t]he judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." In the article it neither says the duties, powers, or any organization of the supreme court. If left this up to congress and to the justices of the court itself for these details.
During the late 1800’s to the mid 1900’s, the United States was tainted by the stain of the slavery era, especially in the southern states. There was a great prejudice against blacks and the white majority was able to prevent them from practicing their basic rights, especially the right to vote and the right to get an education. When people started to question why there should be this segregation within society, they brought the issues to the United States Supreme Court. These conflicts resulted in the Supreme Court cases, Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, two of the most influential court cases in United States history.
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
Torres-Spelliscy et al. (2010) encouraged diversity in the American court system and provided ten practices to attract the brightest female and minority candidates for the judiciary, and they are as follows: (1) grapple fully with implicit bias; (2) increase strategic recruitment; (3) be clear about the role of diversity in the nominating process in state statutes; (4) keep the application and interviewing process transparent; (5) train commissioners to be effective recruiters and nominators; (6) appoint a diversity compliance officer or ombudsman; (7) create diverse commissions by statute; (8) maintain high standards and quality; (9) raise judicial salaries; (10) improve record keeping (p. 3). Appointing minorities and females to the U.S. bench will increase public confidence, and it will also bring important value towards the representation of women and ethnic
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
This ministry is tasked with establishment of courts and the hiring process of judges and judicial officials in lower jurisdictions. The highest court is the Supreme Court which consists of a twenty-three-member bench of judges and concerns itself with appeals regarding criminal and administrative cases. The highest court with regard to financial crimes and economic disputes is the Superior Court of Arbitration. There also exists a constitutional court that is tasked with the regulation and approval of federal laws and presidential decrees as per their constitutional legitimacy. The judges serve for life in their posts in these three highest courts of the land. In contrast to the Russian Supreme court, the American supreme court has no specifically spelled out duties or powers. This is decided by Congress and Justices of the Supreme Court to mandate its actions and organization. The Supreme Court of the United States consists of a chief justice and five associate judges, nominated by the president. They have a tenure of a lifetime appointment, with the Chief Justice serving as the head of the (Karmo & Viacheslav, 2014) judicial arm of government. The Chief Justice oversees impeachment cases against the president and the Supreme Court passes judgement in constitutional cases, treaties and state disputes. The lower Federal Courts are divided into 12 judicial districts. These lower courts include
The responsibility of the Supreme Court is to make a decision on important cases including ones that deal with statutory and constitutional law. They also provide consistency and clarity for laws for the lower courts. The final decision from the Supreme Court is also the last resort for someone wanting to appeal their conviction. A Supreme Court includes up to nine justices who make the final decision on the case. Once a justice is appointed they will remain in that position for life, unlike the other court systems where there is a variety of selection