This was the first time that the Supreme Court had deemed a law unconstitutional, and in fact this power of the Court had not even really been established until it was used in this case. Its establishment, however, was to have profound effects on the judicial branch's power over the legislative and executive branches, especially in making sure that the restrictions of the Constitution were maintained despite -- and in fact precisely in reaction to -- attempts to legally surmount them through legislative acts or executive orders, as Marshall's words make clear (SCHS 2010).
Current Use of Judicial eview in Policy Making
The Supreme Court cannot exercise its power of judicial review until a case is brought to the Court, either through a direct filing (which is rare) or through appeals from lower federal or state courts. Any law or executive action could, however, come under the purview of the Supreme…...
mlaReferences
Saikowski, C. (1987). "The power of judicial review." Christian Science Monitor. Accessed 12 April 2010. http://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0211/zcon4.html
Supreme Court Historical Society. (2010). "Landmark cases: Marbury v. Madison." Accessed 12 April 2010. http://www.landmarkcases.org/marbury/home.html
Judiciary
These two questions will be responded to simultaneously as the answer to one will always involve touching on issues concerning the other.
When we speak of three (3) departments or branches of government then we must necessarily refer to the "presidential system" of governance. These three co-equal and co-independent departments are the Executive, the legislative and the judiciary.
The executive as its name connotes, has the main duty to faithfully execute the laws and the constitution. The legislature enacts or makes laws and the judiciary interprets them and says if the provisions of said law are not in conflict with the constitution. It likewise can decree if the execution made by the executive is in accordance with the laws and the constitution. On the basis of these basic postulates we will now proceed to determine if the judiciary is the weakest or the strongest among the three branches of government. However, before…...
mlaBibliography
1. Burns, James MacGregor, et al. Government by the People. 17th edition. Prentice Hall, 1997
2. Cuaderno, Miguel. Intrinsic Defects of the Presidential System. Philippine Constitutional Journal, January-February 1972, p 14
3. Family Legal Guide. The Judiciary as a Co-Equal Branch of Government. American Bar Association: Findlaw.com, 2003. (accessed 09:04:03). http://www.public.findlaw.com
4. FirstGov. Judicial Branch. (accessed 09:04:03). http://www.uscourts.gov
Justices can make public pronouncements on issues that are important to the federal judiciary - not specific cases that come before the court, but general political and social issues.
For example, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts, recently made a speech that warned about attacks against judicial independence. He was stating what the framers of the Constitution worried about hundreds of years ago when he said: "The long history of attack on judicial independence confirms that neither side in the political debate has a monopoly on the tactic" of challenging court philosophy and decision-making.
hile he himself is conservative, and was chosen by President George . Bush because he has a history of conservative decisions, Chief Justice Roberts noted that many of the recent attacks on the Supreme Court "...emanate from conservative quarters." He reminded those conservatives who wish to politicize the Court that President Ronald Reagan,…...
mlaWorks Cited
History of Federal Judiciary. "Constitutional Origins of the Federal Judiciary." Retrieved 10 Oct. 2006 at http://www.air.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf.
U.S. Courts Newsroom. "Chief Justice Praises Judicial Independence." Retrieved 10 Oct. 2006 at http://www.uscourts.gov /newsroom/judicialindependence.html.
Judicial review allows lawmakers to reflect changing morals and ideals when enacting legislation, but prevents them from allowing the hot-button topics of the moment to determine the laws of a nation. In fact, to really understand the success of judicial review, one need only look to the election in the Ukraine, where the Ukrainian Supreme Court may be the only body far-enough removed from party politics to ensure that Ukrainian voters have their say. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Justice Marshall should be very flattered.
orks Cited
The Gathering Storm." John Marshall: Definer of a Nation. 2003. DuPage County Bar
Association. 9 Dec. 2004 http:dcba.org/brief/sepissue/1997/art20997.htm.
Hugo Lafayette Black." Arlington National Cemetery ebsite. 2004. Arlington National
Cemetery ebsite. 9 Dec. 2004 http:www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hlblack.htm.
Judicial review/Marbury v. Madison." National Legal Center for the Public Interest. 2002.
National Legal Center for the Public Interest 9 Dec. 2004 http://www.nlcpi.org/pdf/JudicialReviewMarburyvMadison.pdf#search='judicial%20review%20marbury'.
Linder, Doug. "Judicial review." Exploring Constitutional Conflicts. 2004. University of…...
mlaWorks Cited
The Gathering Storm." John Marshall: Definer of a Nation. 2003. DuPage County Bar
Association. 9 Dec. 2004 http:dcba.org/brief/sepissue/1997/art20997.htm.
Hugo Lafayette Black." Arlington National Cemetery Website. 2004. Arlington National
Cemetery Website. 9 Dec. 2004 http:www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hlblack.htm.
If Chief Justice Hughes and his five aged associates had chosen to remain, the membership of the court would have been enlarged from nine to fifteen" (Pusey 1995).
A small group of constitutional lawyers advised Roosevelt in the construction of the bill, assuring him that the Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress would pass it. hen Roosevelt introduced the bill, Roosevelt used the euphemism of judicial 'reform' rather than said it was an attempt to circumvent the recent rulings of the Supreme Court. He framed his plan as a way of relieving the pressures of overcrowded court dockets. However, some of the phrases he used made his feelings clear, namely his reference to the problems of lifetime appointments, or "aged or infirm judges," (Menaker 2008).
hen he spoke of justices of advanced ages, the President was obviously speaking of his opponents on the Court, the so-called anti-government Four Horsemen of…...
mlaWorks Cited
Lord, Lewis. "An eagle that didn't take off." U.S. News and World Report.
August 10, 2003. Full text of print article available March 6, 2009 at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/030818/1870thann.htm
Menaker, by Richard G. "FDR's Court-Packing Plan: A Study in Irony." History Now. Issue 15,
April 2008. March 6, 2009 http://www.historynow.org/04_2008/historian4.html
Branches of U.S. Gov't
The government structure in the United States is divided into three distinct branches that work in conjunction to ensure that the country and its citizens are governed justly. These branches were established in Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the United States Constitution. Furthermore, each of these branches plays a major role in the development of public policy.
The executive branch of the government is made up of the president, vice-president, and fifteen Cabinet-level departments (Trethan, 2012). In this governing sphere, the president holds primary power; he, or she, has the power to choose the vice president, and also appoints Cabinet members who are subsequently responsible to head their respective departments. One of the most important functions of the executive branch is to ensure that "laws are carried out and enforced to facilitate such day-to-day responsibilities of the federal government as collecting taxes, safeguarding the homeland, and representing…...
mlaReferences
2011 Executive Orders signed by Barack Obama. (2012). National Archives. Retrieved 17 July
2012, from http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/2011.html
Bill Summary & Status, 111th Congress (2009-2010), H.R. 3808. (2012). The Library of Congress. Retrieved 17 July 2012, from http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z-d111:H.R.3808:
Brown v. Board of Education. (2012). National Park Service. Retrieved 17 July 2012, from http://www.nps.gov/brvb/index.htm
Branches of the Government
In 1787 leaders of the different states sat down to write down the constitution whereby the first section described the separation of the federal government. These three branches of the government are; legislative branch, executive branch and judicial branch.
Legislative branch consist of two houses of congress; the senate and the House of epresentatives .the senate comprises of 100 members from each of the states who are elected in their states in a term that is six years long. The head of the senate is the Vice president but has no voting power. The senate approves the nominations that have been made by the Supreme Court, president of the cabinet, federal courts among other posts. On the other hand, the house of representatives comprises of 435 members with these numbers varying in every state depending on the population. The most important duty of this branch of the federal…...
mlaReferences
Pearson Education.(2000). Three Branches of Government. Retrieved March 13, 2014 from http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0774837.html
McCarty, K., (2000). Farmers, the Populist Party, and Mississippi (1870-1900). Retrieved March 13,2014 from http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/163/farmers-the-populist-party-and-Mississippi-1870-1900
Hartman, D., (2010). Politics of the 1870s and 1880s. Retrieved March 13, 2014 from https://www.connerprairie.org/Learn-And-Do/Indiana-History/America-1860-1900/Politics-Of-The-1870s-and-1880s.aspx
If a plea bargain is reached before the trial, often the trial will not continue. The suspect will be sentenced and then continue to incarceration. Plea-bargaining is a legal tool, which keep the courts from becoming too clogged (Champion 208). This ends the Pre-Trial phase of the criminal court system.
Next in the process is the trial itself. Most people who enjoy courtroom dramas will recognize this phase of the process. Many trials are pleaded out, which means the main characters in the process are the prosecutor, the defense counsel, and the judge. hen a case does go to trial, juries are selected, and are generally composed of 6 or 12 peers, chosen with equal input and approval by both the prosecutor and the defense (Samaha 329). The prosecutor, usually working for the county or state, offers their evidence against the suspect, while the defense counsel presents evidence meant to…...
mlaWorks Cited
Champion, Dean J. Dictionary of American Criminal Justice: Key Terms and Major
Supreme Court Cases, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishing, Chicago, Il, 1998.
Clymer, Steven. Are Police Free to Disregard Miranda? The Yale Law Journal,
Vol 112, 2002, 449-550.
Judicial independence is vital to a healthy society. Agree or disagree and discuss with particular reference to the judiciary system in Australia.
I agree with this statement. The reason why is because history is full of examples showing how judicial independence improves the overall amounts of: transparency and personal freedoms in society. This is because, an independent judiciary is providing a way of giving ordinary citizens the ability have their issues addressed. Once this takes place, it means that the rule of law can begin to function effectively, due to the fact that everyone feels that they will be treated fairly by the court system.
In those nations where the judiciary is often run by the government itself, this means that the citizens have less personal freedom. The reason why is because, the close relationship between these branches will give one more dominance over the others. Once this takes place, it means…...
mlaBibliography
Australia is the 8th Least Corrupt Country. (2009). ABC. Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/18/2745801.htm '
The Australian Legal System. (2011). Treasury. Retrieved from: http://www.treasury.gov.au/documents/1197/HTML/docshell.asp?URL=Preconditions-03.asp
The Courts. (2011). EMA. Retrieved from: http://www.ema.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Legalsystemandjustice_TheCourts
The Duty owed to the Court. (2006). Supreme Court of Victoria. Retrieved from: http://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/justlib/Supreme+Court/resources/3/c/3c87ba8045ff93b8bc85bf3676cca658/Chief+Justice+QLD+Bar+Assoc.pdf
Judiciary Branch of Government in the United Kingdom
The Judiciary Branch of Government
Structure of the U.S. And UK Judiciary Branch
A Comparative Case Study
The structure of the judiciary branch of the government in the United States and the United Kingdom are quite different and the student which studies judiciary structure will readily agree with the statement of fact that textbooks in relation to the American government and politics pay substantial attention to the role of the judiciary; many textbooks on the government and politics of the United Kingdom have -- at least until recently -- virtually ignored the role of judges in the UK which leaves one asking exactly why that this is the case. . The purpose of this work is to research and examine the lack of information and attention to the role and function of the judicial branch of the UK government and to compare and contrast the judicial…...
mlaReferences:
Stevens, Robert (1979) Law and Politics: The House of Lords as a Judicial Body Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979
Countries of the World (1991) Embassy of the United Kingdom: Civil Courts [Online] at Highbeam Research.
Wise, D. & Cummings, M. Jr. (1981) Democracy under Pressure: An Introduction to the American Political System 4th ed. (1981) Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. ISBN: 0-15-517343-X. Lib. Congress No. 81-80036.
Civil law refers to offenses that are not of a heinous nature generally referring to white collar or non-violent crimes, or crimes that do not involve drugs or bodily harm to another individual.
Meanwhile Congress was reluctant to challenge Bush (members feared being termed "unpatriotic" since Bush argued that the safety of Americans depended on the secret surveillance done by NSA) immediately, but in the past few months Congress (the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees) has demanded - and in part received - access to internal documents on the wiretapping program. "That access could ultimately help persuade skeptical lawmakers in the House, which so far has rejected the immunity idea, to sign on to the hite House's Plan" (Lichtblau 2008) according to the New York Times.
Indeed the Senate in January 2008 gave immunity for the phone companies that helped the NSA tap phones secretly, which means Verizon, at&T, et al., cannot be sued for assisting the Bush Administration with its warrantless wiretapping program (there are over 40 lawsuits pending over the phone companies' roles in the wiretapping). So here is a case…...
mlaWorks Cited
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). "Safe and Free: Restore our Constitutional Rights."
Retrieved February 7, 2008, at http://www.aclu.org .
Cornell University Law School. "United States Constitution: Article I." Retrieved February 7, 2008 at http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articlei.html .
Cutler, Leonard. "Human Rights Guarantees, Constitutional Law, and the Military Commissions
Bush's Judicial Appointments
At the onset of the framing of the American Constitution, there was considerable desire to change the manner in which the Kings of Europe had the prerogative to appoint, demote, or fire members of the Judicial branches on a whim. They believed that, at least when it came to the appointment of Supreme Court Justices, there would be less politization involved, a way to limit executive power, and allow Judges to feel less partisan in their approach to policy. The original purpose for appointing the Judges for life, then, was so that regardless of the current administration's views or leanings, the Judges would be able to interpret the Constitution based on their legal views, not the views of the current President or staff. This keeps the High Court relatively stable so that there are not swings every four years in liberal or conservative interpretations (McCloskey and Levinson, 2010).
In…...
mlaREFERENCES
How Judges and Justices Are Chosen. (2012). The Judicial Branch -- American Government. Retrieved from USHistory.org: http://www.ushistory.org/gov/9d.asp
Biskupic, J. (March 14, 2008). Bush's Conservatism to Live Long in the U.S. Courts. USA Today. Retrieved from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-13-judges_N.htm#appointments
McCloskey, R. And Levinson, S. (2010). The American Supreme Court. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Savage, D. (January 2, 2008). Conservative Courts Likely Bush Legacy. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/02/nation/na-judges2
Politics
The Constitution delineates the powers related to the different branches of government, the judicial, legislative and executive. This breakdown is outlined in Article II. In Section 2, the President is appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. The President also has the power to make treaties, appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, judges of the Supreme Court, with the advice of the Senate. The President may appoint lower officials without the Senate's approval, and the President may fill vacancies during recess of the Senate. The President also has the power of veto over laws presented to him by Congress.
The President also has powers that have been granted by Congress. As head of the executive branch, the President has extensive power within that branch to guide funding and projects, and to make appointments. The President can utilize what are known as executive orders, which apply to people working within the executive…...
mlaReferences
Covington, M. (2012). Executive legislation and the expansion of Presidential power. Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal. Vol. 8 (2012) 1-8.
Marshall, W. (2008). Eleven reasons why Presidential power inevitably expands and why it matters. Boston University Law Review. Vol. 88 (2008) 505-522
Peters, G. (2013). The American Presidency Project / Executive Orders. American Presidency Project. Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php
US Constitution, Article II. Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii
Political Science
The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches: Separation of Powers and Maintaining Checks and Balances in the Government
The formulation, enactment, and implementation of the Constitution as the primary basis of law in the United States aim to provide society with representativeness. The establishment of the U.S. government allows for the separation of powers among its three branches: the executive, legislative, and judiciary. The President, Vice-President, and its departments represent the Executive branch; the Senate and Congress, on the other hand, represent the legislative branch; lastly, the Judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court (Microsoft Encarta 2002). Each branch has a function designed to provide people not only their representatives in the government, but to ensure that the state and nation as a whole also fulfills their functions as citizens of the country (as decreed by the Constitution). Each branch's function is also designed to ensure that checks and balances are…...
mlaWorks Cited
'Three Branches of the Government." Utah Education Network. Retrieved February 19, 2004. Available at: http://www.uen.org/themepark/html/liberty/3branches.html .
"United States." Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002. Microsoft Corporation 1993-2001.
"Although the courts often speak in terms of deference, they follow no consistent or predictable pattern in deciding whether to defer in a given case. Moreover, blanket judicial deference to legislative fact-finding would not be a wise general rule. Because social fact-finding plays a decisive role in constitutional analysis, blind judicial deference would undermine the courts' responsibility to protect individual rights," as in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, where the psychological facts in terms of the impact of segregation upon young black students was part of the court's justification for its decision outlawing segregation (Borgmann 2008)
orks Cited
Borgmann, Caitlin E. (2008, February 28). Rethinking judicial deference to legislative fact-finding. Indiana Law Journal. 84. 1. Available March 26,…...
mlaWorks Cited
Borgmann, Caitlin E. (2008, February 28). Rethinking judicial deference to legislative fact-finding. Indiana Law Journal. 84. 1. Available March 26, 2009 at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1098983
Constitutional law is one of the two most important types of law for anyone in the legal field to understand. The United States legal system is derived from a combination of a common law tradition and constitutional law. The common law tradition helps people understand the legal norms that are not expressly outlined in the Constitution or by legislation, while the Constitution places limits and guidelines on the rights and duties that can be governed by the law. This is true with administrative law, which specifically addresses the laws related to various government agencies. This is especially....
Ideological Differences between Federalists and Anti-Federalists
The Federalists and Anti-Federalists were two opposing political factions that emerged during the debate over the ratification of the United States Constitution. Their distinct ideologies shaped the contours of the American constitution.
Federalists
Strong National Government: Federalists believed in a robust central government with ample authority to regulate interstate commerce, raise taxes, and defend the nation.
Checks and Balances: They supported a system of checks and balances among the three branches of government to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful.
Limited Popular Sovereignty: While Federalists acknowledged the importance of popular representation, they also feared....
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