Impact on government and politics

Question 1

Impact on society and culture

Answer 1

• US SC has made important judgements on public policy e.g. Brown v Topeka (1954) ended racial segregation
• The UK SC has not made judgements that have a comparable impact

Question 2

Impact on the executive and legislature

Answer 2

• Constitution is sovreign in the US and provides a lot of fundamental laws for US justices to interpret when ruling on govt action or laws passed by congress
• They can be accused of ‘legislating from the bench’
• This doesnt happen in the UK due to parliamentary sovreignity. Two of the UK SC’s politically contraversial judgements were a defence of parliamentary sovreignty against govt action
• R Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (2017), court ruled the govt cant trigger article 50 without approval from parliament
• R Miller v the Prime Minister (2019), the court ruled unanimously that Bojo acted unlawfully by asking the Queen to suspend parliament for 5 weeks

Question 3

Impact on federalism and devolution

Answer 3

• In the US, all three of the cases Brown v Topeka, Roe v Wade, Obergefell v Hodges extended the scope of federal law at the expense of states rights
• In the UK Widthdrawal from the EU (Scotland Bill) (2018), the UK SC ruled that the Scottish Parliament had gone beyond its devolved powers by seeking to write its own laws for certain areas of EU law