The Supreme Court: Large Role In Government

The current Supreme Court is the most powerful branch of government, and one that may shape the course of democracy for generations to come. The current Supreme Court is made up of nine justices. The four oldest justices are 79, 76, 75, and 73 years of age; Five of the nine justices are Conservative Republicans; Three of the justices are women: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan; One of the justices is African-American: Clarence Thomas; and Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic-American to serve on the Supreme Court. Eight of the justices come out of the appellate court system, and Elena Kagan was the solicitor general. The Court today is divided almost equally along partisan lines. On the corporate front, this is an extremist court, a court that has shifted extremely to the far right. In important cases decided 5-4, it is usually the Republican-chosen quintet that provides the victory. The Supreme Court is now a corporate court that by giving big business the advantage is shrinking access to justice for everyday citizens (Edwards, chapter 15 and Bill Moyer).

The Supreme Court is the courtroom where all the legal cases dealing with congress or the constitution go to get a final decision. The Court is currently composed of a chief justice, eight associate justices, and nine officers. Their main goal as members of the Supreme Court is to make sure everything and anything abides by the constitution. It has many powers when it comes to law and especially the constitution, but it is not overly powerful due to the other two branches of the government. Checks and balances helps keep their powers level and just as important as the executive and legislative branch powers. The Court has the ability to remove a law or refute anything that violates the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court, on average, receives around 7,000-8,000 petitions for a writ of certiorari every term. The Court grants and hears oral arguments for eighty cases. One case specifically was Printz v. United States. This case focused on dealing with background checks when purchasing a firearm. Jay Printz deemed the provisions to the Brady Bill unconstitutional, decided to take it to the District Courts and eventually the case ended up in the Supreme Court, where Stephen P. Halbrook fought and won the case based on a five to four ruling in favor of Printz.

While I accept that theoretically a judge should not consider extralegal factors when making a ruling, I cannot accept your premise that all judges rule as neutral arbiters who rely solely on precedent, Constitutional text, and original intent of the Framers. As with any other individual in public service, judges are still human beings, and thus bring with them their own prejudices, personal biases, and preconceived notions when taking the bench.

The supreme Court is the head of the judicial part of Government in the USA, it acts as an appellant court which can also on occasion deal with ambassadorial and diplomat cases. It is separate from the other 2 branches of government in order to remain independent and provides a powerful check on those branches. However it has been criticised by being called democratically lacking. The members have a significant amount of power

In the book Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court is Usurping the Power of Congress and the People, it sets out to identify how our government has changed and how these changes affect us and our laws. Pat Robertson wants the people to see how the Supreme Court is abusing power. Robertson shows how the federal judges are not only abusing their power but reaching beyond the power they are given. Thomas Jefferson once cautioned that, “to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions” are “a very dangerous doctrine indeed” and “one that would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy” (Robertson, Courting disaster: How the supreme court is usurping the power of Congress and the people, 2004).

The Supreme Court is the highest level of the federal court system. It consists of nine justices, including a chief justice and eight associate justices. Very rarely do cases originate on the level of the Supreme Court. The judges and justices that preside over the courts of the United States determine the constitutionality of laws and legislation.

Its purpose really wasn’t outlined until Marbury v. Madison, where the idea of judicial review was created. The Supreme Court creates precedents, which can be overturned in the future, depending on who the new justices are. Hypothetically speaking, though it would be preposterous to do so, the Supreme Court could overturn the decision in Marbury v. Madison, making the whole judiciary branch become obsolete. This idea of creating precedents and overturning them seems really good in theory, but in the future, it could cause problems. Multiple precedent-setting Supreme Court Cases could be overturned, such as DC v. Heller or Roe v. Wade. While this seems unlikely, it really depends on who the justices are and their political affiliation. Since justices are appointed by the president, it is highly probably that they could end up being biased towards a certain political party. Different parties have different views on laws and parts of the Constitution, which is ludicrous considering that it would be more beneficial for the Supreme Court to make decisions because it was the best idea rather than because it agrees with their political parties. Not to mention, justices are appointed for life and thus could have outdated views that do not necessarily represent modern America. Sometimes it’s good to have a fresh pair of eyes to review such important decisions. Since justices are appointed by the President, this

I discovered how the Supreme Court came to be. I believe that the Supreme Court is overlooked because they make a lot of important decisions. I think that is disappointing that not many people in our country know any names of the people of the Supreme Court. At first their were six member now their are nine. I learned that when the Supreme court first started, they each had a geographical zone. Today, all citizens now go to the Supreme Court. I am skeptical that the Constitution is silent about exactly what the Supreme court is, what it should do, and how should they do it. In the Constitution it mostly mentions the House of Representatives. I think that Supreme Court is barely mentioned because at first it was underestimated and it was not

THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES SHOULD AFFIRM THE LOWER COURT’S DECISION BECAUSE THE ASTON CITY PANHANDALING ORDINANCE IS A VALID, CONTENT-NEUTRAL TIME, PLACE, AND MANNER RESTRICTION OF SPEECH AND THEREFORE DOES NOT VIOLATE PETITIONERS FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT. (Jerica Johnson)

The Supreme Court of the United States did not apply sound reasoning in formulating their final opinion in Reed v. Reed. Even though, the Supreme Court’s decision was unanimous in ruling the Idaho statute unconstitutional because of violation to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The reason why I believe that they did not apply sound reasoning in Reed v. Reed is because the level of scrutiny applied. The Supreme Court applied the rational basis test instead of strict scrutiny. Commonly, when the Supreme Court applies the rational basis test to a law, the law passes because it can be proven that it is “rationally related to a legitimate government interest” . There was no precedent for this case because it was the first time that the Supreme Court heard a case on discrimination against women in violation of the Equal Protection Clause( 404 U.S. 71, 72 ).”

For us to assess how the Supreme Court determines which case they will hear, we must first analyze the structure of the supreme court and how they get appointed. The original court in set the limit of judges to 6 in 1789, but congress has since has changed that number to 9 in 1869 in which it remains to this day. There is but one Chief Justice who is the highest ranking judge, and 8 associate justices, all of which are uniquely diverse in ethnicity, religion, sex, ideology, and length of tenure.

Politics is present throughout the legal system and the courts themselves. It is very difficult to separate politics from the legal system. One reason is the manner in which judges are chosen is politically motivated. The president nominates judges to the Supreme Court and politics influences his and/or her choices. Nominees are usually from the same party as the president or are considered moderates.

In today’s society many Americans do not know much about the role the U.S. Supreme Court plays in the functioning of the U.S. government. The Supreme Court hears and decides on certain appeal cases from lower courts involving laws that challenge the Constitution. The Supreme Court consists of one Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices who current members are John G. Roberts, Jr.; Antonin Scalia; Anthony M. Kennedy; Clarence Thomas; Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Stephen G. Breyer; Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr.; Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

There are many different reasons a person can find themselves in a court as the defendant.

The judicial branch is one of the most powerful branches in the usa besides the legislative branch but the judicial branch has the ability to have the president confirm if they take or leave the Supreme Court Justices are chosen by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and serve for the rest of their lives, as long as they practice “good behavior.”