POS1041 Final Study Guide 1 Article 3 of the Constitution invests judicial power in the United States to the Supreme Court This is the shortest article with only 3 sections The Founding Father s valued court s independence in the constitution so there is lifetime appointments and salaries that cannot be reduced 2 The U S Supreme Court Building says Equal Justice Under Law on the top of the building 3 Rule of Law means the restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well defined and established laws 4 The Supreme Court meets the First Monday in October 5 In the 2013 Supreme Court session 7 500 petitions were filed and 77 cases were heard These topics included Affirmative Action Campaign Finance Presidential Power and Freedom of Speech and Religion 6 No Supreme Court justices have been from Florida 7 To be placed on the U S Supreme Court the president first submits the name to Senate and then Public hearings are held The Judiciary Committee will then vote and then the Senate will vote a simple majority vote is required to induct the nominee 8 Robert Bork was a conservative theorist that was nominated for Senate by President Reagan however his strong right views led the predominately liberal committees to overturn his nomination Bork was defeated by a 58 to 42 vote the largest margin in history Bork then resigned from his lower court judgeship and became an author The term borked is now defined as to defame or vilify a person systematically 9 Article 3 of the Constitution describes the establishment of inferior courts 10 Lifetime appointments and salaries that cannot be reduced help insure the Supreme Court s independence 11 Marbury v Madison 1803 gave way to Judicial Review which is not in the Constitution This is the power of the courts to declare the acts of governmental officials unconstitutional 12 Judicial Review defined 13 It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is refers to Marbury v Madison 14 The Supreme Court does not always support existing law i e Voting Rights Act Defense of Marriage Act and Campaign Finance 15 The Supreme Court does not always overturn existing law i e Affordance Care Act certiorari 16 The Court can overturn state law Immigration Gun Control Medical Marijuana and Diversity in Education are a few examples 17 When Supreme Court justices agree to hear a case they issue a writ of 18 The Supreme Court convenes when there is an issue of broad significance a disagreement among lower courts when a state court has decided a major federal question or when a lower court found federal law to be unconstitutional 19 In the 2013 session the Court heard 77 out of 7 500 petitioned cases 20 The Judiciary Act of 1925 gave the Court the control to pick and chose the cases they hear 21 An amicus curiae is someone who is not a party to a case who offers information that bears on the case but that has not been solicited by any of the parties to assist a court They provide valuable information in the hearing of cases 22 The most common vote in the Court is 5 4 votes but unanimous is best 23 A concurring opinion is an opinion that agrees with the court s disposition of the case and a dissenting opinion is one that disagrees with the court s disposition 24 Chief Roberts believes that written opinions are important because it allows the court to decided the legality of the opinion and how it reflects the federal law 25 There are 9 Supreme Court justices The Constitution vests the power to determine the number of justices in the Congress 26 The Court has heard cases on issues in Immigration Gun Control Medical Ganja and Diversity in Education 27 The task of the Office of the Solicitor General is to supervise and conduct government litigation in the United States Supreme Court Virtually all such litigation is channeled through the Office of the Solicitor General and is actively conducted by the Office The United States is involved in approximately two thirds of all the cases the U S Supreme Court decides on the merits each year 28 Originialists interpret the Constitution in the context it was written before it 29 The Living Constitution refers to interpreting the Constitution in terms of was adopted by the people current problems and needs 30 Hamilton notes that the Court is the least dangerous branch due to the selectivity and check and balances that revolve in its nature Cases have to go through inferior courts before the Court even considers hearing it and then a rigorous series of buffers help to interpret the case and come up with an accurate answer 31 The three levels of federal courts are Trial Appellate and Supreme 32 There are 94 District Courts There is a district court in Tallahassee 33 There are 13 circuit courts of appeals There is not one in Tallahassee 34 The Court only makes decisions based on the Constitution but may intervene if a State imposes laws that are against the Federal Constitution 35 Federal Bureaucracy falls under the Executive branch It is not outlined in the Constitution servants 36 The two types of federal employees are political appointees and civil 37 Federal Cabinet Agencies include the Department of State Department of Treasury Justice Department Department of Health and Human Services Department of Education and Department of Energy 38 Independent Regulatory Agencies include the Food and Drug Admin the Federal Trade Commission Federal Reserve Federal Reserve Federal Communications Commission Consumer Product Safety Commission and Securities and Exchange Commissions 39 Political appointees require for the most part Senate approval 40 Civil Servants are selected on merit expertise are protected from political firing are unbiased and work with both parties work throughout the country and are street level bureaucrats 41 The bureaucracy is delegated laws that are passed in congress and proceeds to write the rules and hire staff The agency oversees what happens and reports to Congress on the program to make further changes if necessary 42 Civil servants generate information from the tobacco industry and provides that information back to the FDA This can include active ingredients in cigarettes to the demographic of tobacco users This helps create a safer smoking environment 43 Bureaucracy serves two masters one in which is to the President by making sure all laws are faithfully executed The second is to congress by appropriating money for agencies and conducting oversight 44
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