CON LAW PPT

8/17/2019 CON LAW PPT

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Constitutional Law & Federal Courts:

The Start & Heart of America

Presentation by:Haig Panossian, Esq. March 17, 2016


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CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

Constitution is the supreme law of the land - no lawmay be passed that contradicts its principles.

The Constitution is organized into three parts:- Preamble, describes the purpose of the document

and Government.- Seven Articles, establishes how the Government isstructured and how the Constitution can be changed.

- Amendments, lists changes to the Constitution; thefirst 10 are called the Bill of Rights.

The Founding Fathers established three mainprinciples on which our Federal Government is based:

- Inherent rights for all Americans- Self-government, or Government by the people- Checks & Balances by Separation of powers


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Separation of Powers - threebranches of government, eachwith its own powers and duties.

Checks and Balances - Eachbranch checks the powers ofthe other two branches

Legislative Branch to make the laws.

Executive Branch to enforce the laws.

Judicial Branch to interpret the laws.


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The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States.

Its main task is to decide cases that may differ from the U.S. Constitution. When theSupreme Court rules over a case, it is usually deciding arguments about the meaningof laws, how they are applied, and whether they violate the Constitution.

The ability to decide if a law violates the Constitution is called judicial review. It isthis process that the judiciary uses to provide checks and balances on the legislativeand executive branches.

Once the Supreme Court makes a decision in a case, it can only be changed by a

later Supreme Court decision or by changing or amending the Constitution.


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Supreme Court is made up ofonly 9 judges called justices

who aren’t democraticallyelected - they’re nominated bythe President & confirmed bythe Senate - and serve for life.

Different than other branches:

- Legislative branch is made

up of 535 democraticallyelected members of Congress

- Executive branch is headed by a democratically electedPresident limited to only two

4-year terms

Supreme Court Justices & Judicial IndependenceThese constitutional protections allow judges to makeunpopular decisions without fear of losing their jobs orhaving their pay cut. For example, the Supreme Court’sdecision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954declared racial segregation in the public schools to beunconstitutional. This decision was unpopular with larg segments of society at that time. Some members ofCongress even wanted to replace the judges who madethe decision, but the Constitution wouldn’t let them.


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Obergefell v. Hodges Explained

Obergefell v. Hodges, it's background, and why same-sex marriage is nowlegal. A run through of the major arguments in the Supreme Court caseObergefell v. Hodges which legalizes gay marriage in all 50 states.

CON LAW PPT

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