Thursday, March 5, 2020

Week 3 Post

There are 3 branches that make up our system of government: executive (president), legislative (Congress), and the judiciary (Courts). The Supreme Court belongs to the Judicial branch, whose main job is to hear court cases that arise due to the victim believing something went wrong in other courts like false conviction. Many of the cases they review are cases on “Civil Rights, Criminal Procedure, taxes,” and labor law. Usually, when coming to a decision, the video states that it often takes a long time. The key idea they have to pay attention to is whether or not the decisions being made are constitutional or unconstitutional, which is a key factor in deciding courses of action.

During the Dred Scott decision, the supreme court power deteriorated by a large margin as the supreme justice at the time declared they were unable to allow slaves to become citizens. After the civil war, this issue was settled and this court decision, according to the video, was a,  “Great self inflicted wound.” It was after the 14th Amendment was created that the power started to return to the court.

Personally, I feel that, although they are meant to check if bills and other cases/rulings are constitutional, there are many times that they go against this. In the past, there were many different cases that led to laws being passed that were against the amendments and other parts of the constitution. Some cases I read about where this happened are ones such as Kelo v. City of New London or Gonzales v. Raich, which both took place in 2005.

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