Article III, Section 1 of the U.S constitution created the Court. Section 1 of Article III states: “The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one
The supreme court is not directly elected by the people, as policymakers are, and yet has a disproportionate amount of power in determining the political direction of U.S. legislation. This causes bitter conflicts over the nomination of supreme court justices and allows the most powerful interest groups and the media to bypass the legislature and effect change at a federal level. Nevertheless a strong judiciary is necessary to balance the legislative and executive powers and must remain as independent…
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Continued Controversy Over The Eighth Amendment[ send me this term paper ] | 5 pages in length. Protecting the rights inherent to every United States citizen is the foundation upon which the nation's Constitution was originally drafted; without this historic document and its subsequent amendments, the founding fathers realized the potential for America becoming a land held hostage by power, greed and injustice. Interestingly, this seems all too often to be the case even with the legally binding…
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The book states that the literal term of jurisdiction is “the power to speak the law.” Jurisdiction warrants a court to hear and decide on a course of action. The book classifies jurisdiction in three parts: persons, subject matter, and federal. Persons can be broken down further into two different parts. The first part is personam jurisdiction, or personal jurisdiction. This is jurisdiction over a person or business in a specific geographic area. The second part is in rem jurisdiction, which…
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Courts and Law The United States legal system developed from the English common law system. Some concepts from Spanish law, such as the prior appropriation doctrine and community property, still continue in some U.S. states, mainly those that were part of the Mexican Cession in 1848. Under the doctrine of federalism, each state has its own separate court system, and the ability to legislate within areas not reserved to the federal government. Federal Special Courts – There are a few special…
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the death of Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia. Scalia died in his sleep while he was on a hunting trip in Texas at age 79. The controversy of his death is arranged around the fact the Scalia is one of the five conservative justices on the supreme court. Due to his death, there are now only four conservative justices, which is equal to the amount of liberal justices. Republicans, are worried the democratic president Barack Obama will chose another liberal, leading a supreme court with a liberal…
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Same-sex Marriage Should the Supreme Court revoke California’s prop 8? This is the ongoing debate our generation will have to address. California has been in the epicenters of this debate; as we witnessed voters oppose gay marriage in the elections of 2008. In 2008, California’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a right to same-sex marriage. Months after the ruling, a majority of the electorate overturned that decision in a statewide ballot initiative. In Justice, Sandel shares his opinion on…
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Roe v. Wade is arguably the Supreme Court’s most controversial ruling, stirring up countless discussions as to whether or not the U.S. Constitution embraces a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy by abortion, and these arguments reached their pinnacle after this case. When talking about abortions, a debate is nearly always brought back to one’s interpretation of the Due Process Clause, and what, if any, Substantive Due Process rights are stemmed from this section of the 14th amendment. Throughout…
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first case to actually test the Fourteenth Amendment was Plessy vs. Ferguson which occurred in 1896. The Supreme Court declared segregation was acceptable as long as the facilities were equal. This decision of “separate but equal” led to the created of the Jim Crow Laws which made everything from bathrooms to restaurants, and even schools segregated in the south. There have been many controversies over the Fourteenth Amendment such as: the University of California v. Bakke in 1978, Brown v. Board of…
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The historic case of Marbury V. Madison 1803 gave the ultimate power to the Supreme Court to declare decision/act of Congress unconstitutional (Cornell Law, Marbury v. Madison). Entrusting one branch of government with all power may lead to dictatorship; hence to avoid such power Judicial Review was introduced to the American Court System. Judicial Review creates check and balance with other branch (Executive and Legislative) of government giving right to Judicial with power to veto the decisions…
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authority of a court to review a prior decision in the same case but made by another court Original jurisdiction – the authority of a court to hear and decide a dispute in the first instance Trial courts Supreme court of the US is in some instances an original jurisdiction court Treaties is an example of when supreme court Personal jurisdiction – inpersonam jurisdiction – means court passes jurisdiction over to the persons handling the business Bankruptcy can only go to a bankruptcy courts Long arm statutes…
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