Supreme Court Flashcards
What’s is the order of appeal in the whole US judicial system? (State and Federal)
State courts:
Municipal court -> county courts -> intermediate court of appeal -> court of last resort/ state Supreme Court
Then…
federal court (each court depending on situation):
Supreme Court, court of appeal, district courts, trial courts, federal courts
Who is the Chief Justice of the SC
John Roberts (appointed since 2005)
Who are the 8 other associated justices
- Clarence Thomas (since 1991)
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg (since 1993)
- Stephen Breyer (since 1994)
- Samual Alito (since 2006)
- Sonia Sotomayor (since 2009)
- Elena Kagan (since 2010)
- Neil Gorsuch (since 2017)
- Brett Kavanaugh (since 2018)
What’s a strict constructionist
A SC justice who interprets the constitution strictly or literary and tends to stress the retention of power by individuals states
What’s a loose constructionist
A SC justice who interprets the constitution less literally and tends to stress the broad grants of power to the federal government
What type of judge is active
A liberal one (democrats)
What type of justice is restrained
A conservative one (Republican)
What type of court was it in 1953 under Warren?
Active
What type of court is it now under Roberts?
Restrained
What are the 4 stages of appointing a justice
The vacancy
Search and pools
The announcement
The confirmation
What happens in the vacancy stage of appointing
- The president must wait for a judge to die or or resign to appoint or replace
- on average each president picks 2
What happens on the search and pools stage of appointing
- The president commission a search for suitable candidates
- political advisers help
- congress party members may also help
What happens in the announcement stage of appointing
- Once shortlist has been written and check by FBI president and VP interview them
What happens in the confirmation stage of the process
- there’s is a formal vote in senate to agree if he/ she is well qualified
- then the judge is announced
What are the problems with the appointment process
- To political chosen by both president and senate
- new judge will follow the lines of the president as a way to pay him back for appointing them
- appointment are for life, meaning you could be to old to have that much power
- senate can block appointments only for political reasons
- media makes it hard if you have a bad name or potential scandals against you
- there’s is alway a political split in SC as there is 9 of them
- justice can be refused by senate due to the court being to political uneven, even if the appointment is well qualified. E.g Robert Bork in 1987.
What is judicial review
The power of the SC to declare an act of Congress, executive or state governments unconditional
Judicial activism
An approach to judicial decision making which holds that judges should use their position to promote desirable social ends
What happen in Brown v Board of education Topeka (1954)
- the SC outlawed racial segregation in public (state) schools
- The Brown Vs. The Board of Education was about the segregation of Black and white Schools Coming together .
- in father 9-0
- decision was based on the 14th amendment suggesting that issued separation is unlawful
What happened in Row vs Wade
- the Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.
- in father 7-2
- based on the 14th amendment suggesting a “right to privacy” that protects a pregnant woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.
What happened in Bush vs Gore
- was a decision of the United States Supreme Court that settled a recount dispute in Florida’s 2000 presidential election. the Court had halted the Florida recount that was occurring.
- the decision off who will become president as it all came down to the Florida vote
- the decision 5-4 in father of no recount caused Bush to win the election
- the most political decision the SC can get
- based on the 12th amendment as all votes have already been counted but if anything the vote was for who each justice wanted to be president.
judicial restraint
an approach to judiciary decision making which means that judges should defer to the legislative and executive branches, and to precedent established in previous court decisions
when does judicial activism occur
- when judges are seen to lead the may in matters of public policy
- when judges don’t refer to actions of elected officials
- when the court strikes down acts of congress and state laws
- when the court declares acts of executive unconstitutional
- the court in effect are making rather then interpreting the law.
when does judicial restraint occur
- when their is matters of public opinion
- when judges are reluctant to strike down acts of congress and state laws
- when judges rarely declare actions of the executive as unconstitutional
- the courts refrain from legislating from the branches
- the court tends to rely on precedent from previous decision
what is similar about the US and UK judiciary
- both have the SC as the final stage
- both have criminal and civil courts
- both types of appeal you work your way up
