The United States Supreme Court
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Transcript of The United States Supreme Court
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The United States Supreme Court
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The Court• The Supreme Court has
final appellate jurisdiction on all cases in the United States
• The court only has original jurisdiction in cases involving foreign diplomats and cases between states. However those cases are usually heard in district court
• The court also has the power to declare acts of the Legislative and Executive Branches unconstitutional
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The Court• The court has 9 judges,
known as Supreme Court Justices
• The Chief Justice is the leader of the court
• John Roberts is the Chief Justice today
• Justices are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate
• They hold their jobs for life or until they want to retire
• The only way they can be fired is through impeachment
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Justice Firsts
• William Howard Taft became Chief Justice after his Presidency
• Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American justice, in 1967
• Sandra Day O’Connor is the first female justice, serving from 1981 to 2006
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Judicial Review• Judicial Review is the
power to declare laws or actions of the government unconstitutional
• The Supreme Court has the power of final judicial review on all cases
• This power was established by the case of Marbury v. Madison
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Marbury v. Madison (1803)• This case is the source of
the court’s most important power
• It involved the change of power from John Adams leaving the Presidency and Thomas Jefferson taking over
• William Marbury was a man appointed to be a federal judge by Adams
• James Madison was Secretary of State and was responsible for delivering Presidential appointments
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I want my job!• William Marbury was named by Adams on the last day of his
Presidency, however the official papers were never delivered
• When Jefferson took over, he decided to not name Marbury. He wanted to name some Democratic-Republican judges and Marbury was a Federalist (like Adams)
• Madison did not deliver the papers and Jefferson nominated someone else
• William Marbury then filed a lawsuit, claiming the judgeship was rightfully his
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Catch-22
• Chief Justice John Marshall had a difficult problem
• If he ruled in favor of Marbury, Jefferson might ignore him and make the court look weak
• However, if he ruled in favor of Madison, it would look like the court was afraid to take on the power of the President, again looking weak
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A brilliant solution!• Marshall decided that the part of
the law that allowed the court to order delivery of appointments was unconstitutional
• Thus, the court could not force Marbury’s appointment, essentially ruling in favor of Madison
• However, by doing this the power of Judicial review was established
• President Jefferson got what he wanted, but to get it he had to officially recognize the court’s power of Judicial Review
• This decision made the court the equal of the President and Congress from then into the present day
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Not just ancient history!• Controversy over appointing federal judges didn’t stop with
Marbury v. Madison
• There are often bitter fights between political parties over the appointing of judges
• Since they hold jobs for life, they can have a big effect on how a party’s views are upheld in government over the long term
• This is especially true with Supreme Court Justices
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Robert Bork• Usually judges are
approved by the Senate• However, sometimes they
are voted down if they are judged to be unfit for the job
• In 1987, Robert Bork was nominated by President Reagan but the Senate rejected him by a 58-42 vote
• His views opposing some landmark civil rights decisions of the court led to strong opposition by minority and women’s groups
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Clarence Thomas• Clarence Thomas was
nominated by George Bush in 1991 to replace the retiring Thurgood Marshall, as the only African-American on the court
• However, he held political views that went against those of most African-Americans and was opposed by most civil rights groups
• It became the most controversial nomination in recent history
• He was also accused of sexual harassment by a former co-worker, Professor Anita Hill
• In the end he was approved by the Senate, 52-48 and is on the court today
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What Cases To Hear
• There are thousands of cases appealed to the court each year
• It doesn’t have time to hear them all
• In 2014, over 7,738 cases were appealed
• The court accepted only 87 of the 7,738
• How do you think they choose which cases to hear?
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Court Selection• Most cases that are chosen
by the court involve a Constitutional question
• They also select cases that involve great public interest
• They will also take cases with issues that are of national importance
• At least four of the Justices must agree that a case is important before it is accepted
• Once a case is accepted it is placed on the docket, or schedule of cases to be heard
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Your Day in Court• Supreme Court cases are
not like other courts• The Justices read the
briefs, or written arguments of each side, before the hearing date
• They also know the details of the case by studying the decision of the lower court
• Each lawyer makes his case and is questioned by the Justices
• There are no witnesses• The Justices meet in
private and announce their decision months later
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Decision Time
• The court can rule 1 of 3 ways in each case
• They can Uphold the decision of the lower court, leaving things as they are
• They can Overturn the decision, reversing the lower court
• They can Remand the case back to the lower court and order them to reconsider it
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Everyone Has An Opinion• The winning side among
the Justices writes an official statement explaining their decision, called the Majority Opinion
• Justices that agree with the ruling, but for different reasons can write a Concurring Opinion
• The Justices who voted against the majority explain their reasons in the Dissenting Opinion
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Real Cases of the Court
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Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• Homer Plessy was 1/8 African-American, 7/8 white
• He was riding a segregated train in Louisiana, riding in the “white” car
• The conductor ordered him to the “colored” car
• When he refused, he was arrested and charged with violating Louisiana “Jim Crow” laws
http://www.vbschools.com/online_pubs/kaleid/2010/02/DAR.html
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19th Century Justice
• Plessy appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court
• He claimed that his 14th Amendment rights had been violated
• The “equal protection under the law” clause made segregation unconstitutional in his opinion
• Was he right?
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Separate But Equal?
• The court ruled against Homer Plessy
• They said that states could mandate separate facilities for the races, as long as they were equal facilities
• This met the requirements of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment
• So racial segregation would be legal for several more decades
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Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• By the middle of the 20th Century, attitudes toward race were beginning to change
• The NAACP, a major civil rights organization, decided to challenge the “Plessy” decision
• Several cases from around the country were taken on by NAACP lawyers, led by Thurgood Marshall
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Crossing the tracks• Linda Brown was an African-American girl in Topeka, Kansas
• She had to cross railroad tracks to get to the “colored” school, while there was a “white” school much closer to her home
• Her parents tried to enroll her in the “white” school and when they were refused, the NAACP filed a lawsuit on their behalf
• They argued that “Separate but Equal” did not work, because it was never equal
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A new era begins• The Supreme Court ruled for
the Browns and the NAACP• They stated that segregation
in public schools is unconstitutional and unfair
• They ordered all schools across the country to de-segregate immediately
• This led to the end of legalized segregation in all public places
• Thurgood Marshall became famous as a great lawyer and would earn a spot on the Supreme Court himself in 1967
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Owasso School District v. Falvo (2002)
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Sound Familiar?• At Owasso Middle School in Tulsa, OK
• Students often grade papers in class
• Sometimes students would read out the scores
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A Parent Objects!
• Kristja Falvo, who had 3 children in the school, complained
• She said her kids were embarrassed by the practice of grading in class
• She claimed the school was invading the privacy of her kids
• She said the school violated the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974” (FERPA)
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FERPA (1974)
• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act says:
• Schools are forbidden to release “educational records” of students without a parent’s permission
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What do you think?
• Does grading papers in class violate your privacy?
• Is a grade in class an “Educational Record”?
• Is FERPA violated?
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A Unanimous Decision
• The Supreme Court rejected Falvo’s argument by a 9-0 vote. It did not violate FERPA to grade papers in class
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The Opinion of the Court
The Supreme Court said:• Peer grading is part of the learning
process and gives additional review to students
• Educational records are those held in official files. Everyday student work and teacher records are not protected by FERPA
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California vs. Andrade (2003)
• This case was a Constitutional test of California’s “Three Strikes” law
• In 1994, California voters approved Proposition 184, which required judges to issue sentences of 25 years to life for anybody convicted of a felony for the 3rd time
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Three Strikes and You’re Out• Under this new law many criminals were sent to prison for life
who would have otherwise received much lighter sentences
• Sometimes the “third strike” was not a violent crime
• In California, “theft with a prior” issues a felony charge to what would be a misdemeanor for a first offense
• Some criminals objected to this, claiming to receive cruel and unusual punishment for relatively minor crimes, violating the 8th Amendment
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Beats the Blue Light Special!• Leandro Andrade had a long criminal record
• He had been convicted of 5 felonies and 2 misdemeanors in the past
• On November 4, 1995 he was caught trying to shoplift 5 videotapes, worth a total of $84, from K-Mart
• He was charged and released on bail
• Two weeks later, he was caught shoplifting $68.84 in videotapes from another K-Mart
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You’re Out!!!
• He had priors for theft and burglary, so these charges became “theft with a prior”, a felony
• He was charged under the “3 Strikes” law
• He was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for the crimes
• He appealed under the 8th Amendment
• How would you have ruled?
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Throw away the key!
• The court ruled 5-4 in favor of the State of California
• They ruled that the state had the right to set their own punishments for crime
• Prison time in this case did not constitute “cruel and unusual” punishment
• Many states have passed similar laws since, including Virginia
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Atkins v. Virginia (2002)• Daryl Atkins has an IQ of 59
• Mild mental retardation is generally believed to be between 50-69 on the IQ scale
• In August,1996 Atkins and a friend were trying to get some money to buy some beer
• Atkins approached Eric Nesbitt, 21, in the parking lot of a convenience store in York County, Virginia
• Atkins robbed Nesbitt, kidnapped him and took him to a field where he shot and killed him
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An eye for an eye
• Atkins was soon arrested and put on trial for capital murder and robbery
• He was found guilty and sentenced to death
• He appealed his case to the Supreme Court
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His appeal• He claimed that his IQ should make him ineligible for the death
sentence
• His lawyer argued that no state executed kids ages 9-12, and that his IQ of 59 was normal for 9-12 year olds
• Since the death penalty had been re-instated in 1976, 35 mentally challenged people had been put to death, four in Virginia
• Do you think he had a point? Is it wrong to execute a mentally challenged person?
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The Verdict
• The court ruled 6-3 in favor of Atkins
• The majority opinion said that there was an emerging national consensus against executing the mentally challenged
• Since 1989, 18 states had passed laws against it, including Texas
• They said this justifies a national ban on executing the mentally challenged
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The Court vs. Executive Branch
• Besides the power to invalidate unconstitutional laws, the courts have the power to declare acts of the Executive branch as unconstitutional as well
• Courts can cancel decisions by executive departments and even overrule the President of the United States
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Nixon v. United States (1974)• During the Watergate
Scandal, President Nixon refused to turn over tapes and documents to the special prosecutor
• Nixon claimed “Executive Privilege”
• The court ruled against Nixon
• The White House tapes showed that he was guilty of several crimes and helped lead to Nixon’s resignation
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September 11, 2001• Following the attacks of September
11, President Bush issued some controversial executive orders
• He basically created a separate justice system for people accused of being terrorists
• Under his order (and the Patriot Act), anyone suspected of being a terrorist could be declared an “enemy combatant” and be held indefinitely without notifying anyone
• Suspected terrorists could also be tried by “secret military tribunals” with no right of appeal or access to a lawyer of their choice
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Bring ‘em on
• President Bush said that these steps were necessary to protect America from terrorism
• Some others, led by the ACLU, claimed that these moves are unconstitutional and a dangerous step that could lead to less freedom for Americans
• What do you think? Were Bush’s steps reasonable and necessary, given the reality of terrorism?
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Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)• Yaser Hamdi was captured by
American forces in Afghanistan and taken to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba
• It was discovered that he was an American citizen, as he was born in Louisiana, so he was transferred to the Navy brig in Norfolk
• A suit was filed on his behalf, demanding his day in court, “due process” as guaranteed by the 5th Amendment
• The Bush administration refused, saying he had no rights as an “enemy combatant”
• What do you think?
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You have to obey the Constitution• The Court ruled 8-1in favor of Hamdi
• The opinion said that an American citizen cannot be denied their Constitutional rights under any circumstances
• Anyone who is held by the government has the right to challenge that detention in court
• He is still being held, awaiting that day in court
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Rasul v. Bush (2004)
• This case was very similar to the Hamdi case, except it involved a detainee who was not an American citizen
• Rasul was also being held as an enemy combatant, but still at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in Cuba
• Does this make the Constitutional principle any different?
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No, it doesn’t
• The court ruled 6-3 against the policy of President Bush
• Even if not an American citizen, a person held by the government has the right to challenge their detention in federal court
• Bush was ruled as having exceeded the power given to him by the Constitution