Outsourcing Outsourcing is used to describe the practice of handing over control of public services to for profit corporations The Bureaucracy Bureaucracy System of government where the decisions are made by state officials rather than elected representatives Rotation in Office An official would serve in a position for a short fixed period and then move on to something else Bureaucratic culture After long service in agencies people develop a sense of what the agencies does and how it should be done Federal Register Publishes all new administrative rules that have force of law due to Administrative Procedures Act of 1946 Fire Alarms Interest groups complain media expose constituents report on shortcomings OUTSIDE factors to sound the alarm Hearings and Investigations Called before subcommittees to explain defend decisions Inspectors General Investigates activities on Congress behalf Iron Triangle policy making relationship among Congressional committees the bureaucracy and interest groups Issue Networks amorphous ever changing sets of politicians lobbyists academic think tank experts and public interest entrepreneurs rather than the rigid iron triangle Legislative vetoes Veto exercised by a legislature such as a concurrent resolution Allow one or both houses of Congress to veto by majority vote on agency s policy proposals Limitation Riders Stop agencies from issuing regulations opposed by Congress Mandatory reports Congress requires executive agencies to report Police Patrols Patrolling the executive branch looking for problems centralized done by a review committee Red tape Complex arrangements paper work etc Federal Judiciary Activism The policy of campaigning to bring forth political change Amicus Curiae Friend of the Court Brief given to Supreme court to take a certain case because it may benefit them or believe it will affect the outcome The more Amicus Curiaes that the Court receives for a case the more likely it is that the case would be heard Attorney General Head of the U S Justice department Represents the US in legal matters Enforces federal laws creating laws Investigating violations Concurring opinion An opinion that agrees with the court decision but expresses the judges reasoning behind so Dissenting opinion An opinion that disagrees with the majority opinion or decision Circuit Splits ambiguities in conflicting lower court decisions Constitutional courts High Courts that deal with constitutional law Court of Appeals Court to appeal in both federal and state circuit Court packing plan Increase the size of the Supreme Court and bring new judges in who would change the balance of opinion FDR Judicial doctrine The practice of prescribing in a decision a set of rules that are to guide future decisions on similar cases Used by the Supreme Court to guide the lower courts in making decisions Judicial review Review of Legislative Executive acts to make sure that its constitutional A result of Marbury v Madison Procedural doctrine law that requires a state prisoner seeking a writ of Habeas Corpus in federal court to have presented his federal law argument to the state courts on direct review in compliance with state procedural rules Failure to do so will bar any attempt to present that argument to the federal courts Restraint the judicial action of deferring to the policies emanating from the elected branches in the absence of a clear violation of the Constitution or established doctrine Senatorial courtesy presidential appointments are confirmed only if there is no objection to them by the senators from the appointees state esp from the senior senator of the president s party from that state Solicitor General Responsible for arguing cases before the Supreme court represents the Government Stare decisis Let the decision stand Policy of the courts to abide by principles established in previous cases Substantive doctrine principle that guides judges on which party in a case should prevail akin to policy making Writ of certiorari Superior court demanding the records or a certain case Writ of Habeas Corpus a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is lawfully accused and whether or not that person should be released from custody Writ of Mandamus Superior courts order to perform or stop from performing a certain act Overview Quick Summary of Judiciary The Supreme Court The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land Sometimes it hears cases as a trial court but most of the time the Court functions as an appellate court The Court has traditionally consisted of nine justices one chief justice and eight associate justices Although Congress has the power to change the number of justices the number has held steady at nine justices since 1869 Supreme Court justices serve for life Selecting Cases The Supreme Court receives thousands of appeals every year but hears only a small percentage of them The Court meets in closed session to decide which cases to hear The Court generally follows the rule of four in choosing cases If four justices want to hear a case the Court will accept it When the Court decides to hear a case it issues a writ of certiorari a legal document ordering a lower court to send a case to the Supreme Court for review The writ of certiorari signals that the Supreme Court will hear the case The Court tends to hear only cases of great importance such as cases involving a constitutional matter or a possible overturning of precedent The Court is more likely to grant a writ of certiorari if one of the appellants is the U S government The solicitor general a high ranking official in the Justice Department submits the requests for certiorari and argues cases in front of the Court as the lawyer for the federal government Briefs and Oral Arguments Both parties in a case must submit briefs to the Court documents that present the party s position and argument Sometimes other groups submit amicus curiae briefs friend of the court briefs which present further arguments in favor of one party or the other The justices read the briefs and then may hear oral arguments in which both parties have thirty minutes to make their case before the full Court During oral arguments the justices frequently interrupt the attorneys to ask questions Deciding Cases After oral arguments the justices meet in judicial conference to discuss the case Sometimes the Court issues a per curiam rejection an