The Supreme Court

Question 1

introduction

Answer 1

the supreme court is all about the power of the American federal judiciary and the countervailing limits placed upon it

Question 2

structure and powers of SC

Answer 2

• outlined in article three of the constitution: ‘The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish’

Question 3

what are the inferior Courts?

Answer 3

• established by Congress are district courts and courts of appeals
• there are 94 district courts across the United States, with at least one in every state, which are general trail courts for both criminal and civil cases
• they also hear appeals from specialised lower courts such as bankruptcy courts
• if a district court is appealed it is referred to one of the 13 courts of appeals, organised along judicial ‘circuits’ across the United States - thus appeals courts are often referred to as circuit courts - who have a mandatory obligation to review, and if necessary change, the district court decision

Question 4

in what circumstances are decisions taken to the supreme court?

Answer 4

• if a court of appeals decision is itself appealed, the matter goes to the supreme court - the final court of appeal - who can reject, amend, or uphold the lower court decision or, much more likely, choose not to take up the appeal and simply allow the lower court judgement to stand
• this is significant in the sense that the Supreme Court, unlike courts of appeals, are under no obligation to listen to appeals from lower courts

Question 5

how does the Supreme Court choose their cases?

Answer 5

• they select which cases they wish to review by issuing a writ of certiorari which indicates their intention to review a lower court decision
• as a consequence, although the Supreme Court undoubtedly hears the most controversial and prominent cases, the overwhelming majority of appeals are decided by the Court of Appeals without proceeding any further
• this is in no small part due to the fact that there are only 9 supreme court justices
• at district court level, there are 677 judgeships and, at appeals court level, there are 179 judgeships
• the united states district court for the district of Nevada contains 10 judges, 9 senior judges, and 1 chief judge

Question 6

how long has the current number of SC justices been stuck for?

Answer 6

• 1869
• it would technically be possible to increase the number of supreme court justices through the passage of an act of congress, which has been done several times
• Roosevelt, frustrated by the court striking down several pieces of his new deal legislation in the 1930s, proposed an increase in the membership of the Court in 1937 in a controversial court-packing plan, but wasn’t successful
• At the moment, it is difficult to envisage Congress, given the current polarisation between the political parties and the ways in which the judiciary has been politicised in recent years, agreeing to expand or contract the size of Supreme Court

Question 7

Chief Justice

Answer 7

• has no additional voting power over other eight justices
• he does have some privileges that allow him to put his ‘stamp’ on the character of the Court
• firstly, he presides over oral arguments in front of the court, which allows him to guide the questioning of litigants
• secondly, he chairs meetings of Justices which gives him added influence when debating cases or deciding which cases will be awarded certiorari
• thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, the Chief Justice - when in the majority - decides which Justice may agree in relation to a case, they may do so for different reasons, thus explaining why for a large number of cases additional concurring opinions are written
• having the ability to assign opinion-writing duties may enable him to cement the vote of an Associate Justice who is wavering on a decision; being given the opportunity to deliver the opinion could win an uncertain Justice over to your view
• the chief justice is also the most prominent member of the Court. He has particular ceremonial duties not given to the Associates. Every 4 years he swears in the president at a public inauguration ceremony.
• In the event of a president being impeached, which has happened twice in US history, the chief justice will preside over his trail in the Senate. This happened most recently when Chief Justice William Rehnquist presided over the impeachment trail of President Clinton in 1998

Question 8

what has the influence of Chief Justice meant?

Answer 8

• period of Supreme Court history are often demarked by the Chief Justice of the day
• the seventeenth years that Earl Warren was Chief Justice, for example, are referred to as the ‘Warren Court’, characterised by a liberal judicial philosophy and the promotion of civil rights
• the current Supreme Court is known as the ‘Roberts Court’ after Chief Justice John Roberts

Question 9

The Impeachment of President Clinton

Answer 9

• impeached by the House of Representatives on Dec 19 1998
• he was accused of lying about the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, in evidence he gave in the case of Jones v. Clinton (1997) in which a former Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones, who had worked for Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas, sued him for sexual harassment
• Jones had filed a civil claim against Clinton in the District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas but was dismissed on the grounds that she failed to demonstrate that she had suffered damages
• after she appealed the case to the Court of Appeals for the 8th circuit, Clinton contended that a sitting president could not be prosecuted whilst in office for offences committed before becoming president
• the case of CLinton v. Jones resolved this in which the S.C decided, in a unanimous ruling, that presidents were not immune from civil prosecution for matters unrelated to his duties as president/