Authority and Limitations of Judicial Review Flashcards
What’s the importance of Marbury v. Madison?
Supreme Court can invalidate the laws created by the legislature if it is against the Constitution. Centers the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
The Court says what the law is.
Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee
Supreme Court can invalidate the law/ruling of the highest state courts.
What are the limits placed on the Courts?
Nomination and confirmation process – federal judges must be nominated by the executive and confirmed by the legislature.
Impeachment – judges who are not doing their jobs can be impeached (removed from office) by the legislature, must be an extreme circumstance.
Congressional changes to size and budget of courts – can cause backlog in the courts.
Court stripping – when Congress makes a law restricting jurisdiction of the courts.
Constitutional amendment.
Interpretive limits
What are the types of constitutional interpretation?
Originalism, textualism, structural, intent, non-originalism (living Constitution)
What is originalism?
Looking back to the time the Constitution was written, and understand what the people who wrote it meant; original meaning
What is textualism?
Looking strictly at the text of the document to determine the meaning; what does the word mean (common understanding, dictionary)
What is structural interpretation?
Looking at the structure of the whole document, and what the words mean within the purview of the entire document; relate to the sections to each other.
What is the intent interpretation?
What’s the founders wanted the law to do; look at other documents (records, letters, etc.); more specific than originalism (what did they want versus what did they mean)
What is non-originalism?
Meaning changes with the times; interpretation of the Constitution evolves, approach modern problems with modern times.
What are the four canons of interpretation?
Avoid constitutional conflict if possible – court should avoid deciding a case on constitutional grounds; if the court can decide on another issue, it should.
If not, keep it narrow – if a constitutional issue must be decided, the court must keep the decision narrow (example: limited to the facts at hand)
If possible or in doubt, harmonize or uphold
Sever and strike down only as a last resort – if a part of a law is unconstitutional, first option is to remove/sever that part of the law from the rest of the law; last resort is to strike down the entire law.
What are the avoidance principles?
Do not decide a friendly, not adversarial case
decide only when necessary
decide narrowly on the facts presented
decide on non constitutional grounds if possible
