The Supreme Court."The judicial Power of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts INFERIOR COURTS. By this term are understood all courts except the supreme courts. An inferior court is a court of limited jurisdiction, and it must appear on the face of its proceedings that it has jurisdiction, or its proceedings. will be void. 3 Bouv. Inst. n. 2529. as the Congress may from time to time ordain ORDAIN. To ordain is to make an ordinance, to enact a law. 2. In the constitution of the United States, the preamble. declares that the people "do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America. and establish." --Article III, Section I, the U.S. Constitution As the nation's highest court, the Supreme Court decides cases that affect almost every aspect of American life--from civil rights and college admissions policies to the electoral process and the environment. The Court determines whether laws, the actions of public officials, and lower-court rulings are legal according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Constitution. Its rulings serve as precedents, or legal guidelines, for federal, state, and local governments. As head of the judiciary branch, the Court also defines the powers of the legislative (Congress) and executive (President) branches. The President, in turn, appoints the Court's nine Justices (judges), who are then confirmed by the Senate. The Court in Action The Supreme Court hears only a small fraction--about 150--of the 7,000 cases submitted to it each year. Most legal disputes arrive at the Court via a written request for certiorari certiorari In law, a writ issued by a superior court for the reexamination of an action of a lower court. The writ of certiorari was originally a writ from England's Court of Queen's (King's) Bench to the judges of an inferior court; it was later expanded to include writs (SER-shee-uhRAR-ee), or the right to explain why the Supreme Court should review the case. It was such a process that helped elect a U.S. President. In December 2000, then-Republican candidate George W. Bush appealed to the Supreme Court to review a Florida court's order for a statewide ballot recount. The Court ruled against the recount. As a result, Governor Bush gained the state's 25 electoral votes and clinched the election. Most Supreme Court cases are appeals of lower-court rulings. This process is known as appellate jurisdiction APPELLATE JURISDICTION. The jurisdiction which a superior court has to bear appeals of causes which have been tried in inferior courts. It differs from original jurisdiction, which is the power to entertain suits instituted in the first in stance. Vide Jurisdiction; Original jurisdiction. . The Court also has the authority, or original jurisdiction, to hear cases involving legal disputes between a state and the federal government. Law of the Land The Court's role has changed over time. Early in its history, it focused chiefly on the division of authority between state and federal governments. Since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the Court has turned much of its attention to the protection of individual rights and liberties. In recent years, many cases before the Court have been decided by a 5-4 vote. Legal experts say this lack of agreement reflects the increasingly polarized A one-way direction of a signal or the molecules within a material pointing in one direction. (opposing) views of the American people An American people may be:
YOU BE THE JUDGE! The Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance, in full, Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, oath that proclaims loyalty to the United States. and its national symbol. CASE 1: Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow Newdow v. United States Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et al. 542 U.S. 1 (2004) was a lawsuit originally filed in 2000 which led to a 2002 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance Michael Newdow Michael Arthur Newdow (born June 24 1953 in New York City) is a Sacramento, California attorney and emergency medicine physician. He is best known for his efforts to bar public schools in the United States from reciting the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance because of its has sued a California school district where his 9-year-old daughter attended school. He argues that the district violated his daughter's religious freedom by forcing her to hear the phrase "under God" during the Pledge of Allegiance. He says the Pledge should be banned from public schools because the phrase "under God" is a form of prayer, and thus a violation of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear this case during its current term. THE ARGUMENTS: Newdow argues that the Constitution prohibits the government from supporting any religion in public schools and elsewhere. This interpretation of the First Amendment has been used in previous cases where the courts have barred school-led prayer in classrooms, on playing fields, and at ceremonies. The U.S. government and many school districts argue that "under God" is more about ceremony, much like the phrase "In God We Trust" that is printed on the national currency. U.S. lawyers argue that it is "far-fetched" to interpret such ceremonial references as official U.S. policy. YOU DECIDE: Should the phrase "under God" be included in the Pledge of Allegiance? Or does the phrase violate the constitutional guarantees separating church and state? Separate, But Equal? CASE 2: Plessy v. Ferguson Plessy v. Ferguson, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth amendment to the U.S. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy Homer Plessy (March 17, 1863 – March 1, 1925) was the American plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Arrested, tried and convicted of a violation of Louisiana's racial segregation laws — his great-grandmother was black , a man of Caucasian and African-American heritage, was arrested for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. According to Louisiana's Separate Car Act, all railway cars carrying passengers in Louisiana were to provide "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races." Plessy challenged the law as a violation of the Constitution. Segregation laws provided equal, but inferior facilities for blacks. John H. Ferguson, a judge, upheld Louisiana's law and found Plessy guilty. Plessy ultimately appealed the decision to the Supreme Court in 1896. THE ARGUMENTS: Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Fourteenth Amendment Fourteenth Amendment, addition to the U.S. Constitution, adopted 1868. The amendment comprises five sections. Section 1 Section 1 of the amendment declares that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are American citizens and citizens , which forbids states from denying equal tights to any person. Because he was denied his rightful seat in the "White" car, Plessy said the Louisiana law Louisiana is the only U.S. state whose legal system is based in part on civil law, which is based on French and Spanish codes and ultimately Roman law, as opposed to English common law, which is based on precedent and custom. destroyed the legal equality of all people. Lawyers seeking to uphold Ferguson's decision argued that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed political equality but not social equality "Equal Rights" redirects here. for the motto, see Equal Rights (motto) Social equality is a social state of affairs in which certain different people have the same status in a certain respect, at the very least in voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of for the races. In providing equal seating for both races, the Separate Car Act did not deny anyone accommodations. YOU DECIDE: Did Plessy have a right to sit in the "White" car? Did Louisiana's Separate Car Act conflict with the Constitution, despite providing "equal but separate accommodations"? Your Teacher's Edition tells how the Supreme Court ruled. Words to Know * precedent: An act or decision that can later be used to justify a similar case. * appellate: The power to hear appeals and review lower-court decisions. * jurisdiction: Area over which a person or group has legal authority. LESSON PLANS OBJECTIVES Students should understand * How the Supreme Court functions as the interpreter of the U.S. Constitution. TEACHING STRATEGY Ask students to share what they know about the Supreme Court. BACKGROUND The Supreme Court upheld Louisiana's segregation laws in the Plessy v. Ferguson case by a 7-1 vote. The Court ruled that separate and equal accommodations for whites and blacks did not define any race as inferior. This ruling was overturned by the Court in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education Brown v. Board of Education (of Topeka) (1954) U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. of Topeka. Lawyer Thurgood Marshall, who represented the Browns and other families, argued that the "separate but equal" rule harms minority students by making them feel inferior and thus interfering with their ability to learn. The Court agreed with Marshall and ruled unanimously that segregation violated the 14th Amendment, which requires that all citizens be treated equally. THINKING SKILLS MAKING CONNECTIONS: How do Supreme Court rulings affect all Americans? (The Court defends the rights of all Americans according to the Constitution. As the nation's highest judicial body, its rulings serve as precedents for federal, state, and local governments.) MAKING INFERENCES: How do 5-4 voting margins in Supreme Court decisions reflect popular opinion in the U.S.? (Experts say that close margins in the Supreme Court's rulings show an American public in sharp disagreement regarding certain political and social issues.) ACTIVITY THE PRESIDENT AND JUSTICES: Have students write a paper analyzing the political goals a President might pursue when appointing a Justice to the Supreme Court. How can a new appointee APPOINTEE. A person who is appointed or selected for a particular purpose; as the appointee under a power, is the person who is to receive the benefit of the trust or power. affect the philosophy of the Court? STANDARDS SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8 * Power, authority, and governance: How the Supreme Court serves as the third branch of the U.S. government. * Individuals, groups, and institutions: How the Supreme Court ensures the rights of the American people. RESOURCES * Patrick, John J., The Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court of the United States Final court of appeal in the U.S. judicial system and final interpreter of the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court was created by the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as the head of a federal court system, though it was : A Student Companion (Oxford University Press, 2002). Grade 8. * LeVert, Suzanne, Supreme Court (Benchmark, 2002). Grades 6-8. WEB SITES * Supreme Court of the United States www.supremecourtus.gov * Historic Supreme Court Decisions http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/judges.htm |
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