Supreme Court Research Paper

Is the Supreme Court a legal or political institution?

The Supreme Court is the third branch of the United States government established in 1789, and has many different roles within the government. Its main roles include hearing cases presented by the lower courts and working closely with The Constitution to investigate whether acts are coherent with the document or not**. Although the branches are on a horizontal line of power, the Supreme Court’s power in The Constitution is rather vague and brief, suggesting it’s limited power in comparison to it’s brother branches. It is evident that this branch is heavily involved in the political sphere of activity and influence both from the other branches and personal political opinions of Justices. …show more content…
This essay is going to be arguing the contrary: that the Supreme Court remains a legal institution despite the political involvement, this is because it is exclusively separate and independent of the other branches, and there are procedures in place to prohibit political influence infiltrating the court and it’s decisions.

The implication that the Supreme Court is entirely, objectively focused on legal affaires is inevitably tainted by the influence from the surrounding political sphere. The appointment of Justices into the court is primarily a political matter. This is because it is the Executive branch’s role to nominate a candidate to be a member of the court; this nomination will then be approved or denied by the Senate. This is as stated in The Constitution that “he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court,” . This can be problematic because a Judge’s term outlasts that of a President, with the President being in office for four year and the Judge being a part of the Supreme Court for their whole life1. Thus the President’s decision can have long lasting consequences that could …show more content…
Once a member is in Court, they have no ties or loyalties to the President or any other political sector. It was the intention that the Supreme Court was to be completely independent from exterior influences. Alex Hamilton wrote in Federalist 78 “‘the complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited constitution” . Thus meaning that for the Supreme Court to accurately do it’s job as stated by the Constitution it must be separate from all other branches. Furthermore, the Judges lifetime term reiterates this isolation, Hamilton writes “nothing can contribute so much to its firmness and independence as permanency in office, this quality may therefore be justly regarded as an indispensible ingredient in its constitution”7. This autonomy can be seen in practice when as mentioned previously judges go against the wishes of the President that appointed them for example when Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. opposed Roosevelt, the President whom appointed Holmes, in the United States v. Northern Securities case2. Thus indicating that Judges can be independent and make laws on legal matters rather than political influence. Moreover, the members of the Supreme Court in modern politics have become more diverse, with a mixture of gender, political beliefs, ethnicities and

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