The system of checks and balances is meant to even power within the Federal Government, but within we know it has its flaws. The judiciary has the least power of them all it is meant to evaluate laws that have been challenged. Executive carries out laws whereas the legislative makes laws. The formation of interest groups and the actions taken by the public greatly impact the power of the judiciary branch as well. Alexander Hamilton 's Federalist NO. 78 paper describes the correct reasoning of as to why the judicial branch has the least power of all
In 1787 and 1788, the Federalist Papers were written and published in various newspapers in the state of New York intended to encourage Yorkers to vote in ratifying the proposed Constitution. The famous papers consist of eighty-five essays authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.
There was discussion of judicial review in Federalist No. 78, written by Alexander Hamilton, which explained that the federal courts would have the power of judicial review. Hamilton stated that under the Constitution, the federal judiciary would have the power to declare laws unconstitutional. He also stated that this was appropriate because it would protect the people against abuse of power by Congress.
Woodrow Wilson once referred to the Supreme Court as “a constant constitutional convention in continuous session”, due to the role they have played in interpreting the constitution as it is written. Due to the ambiguity found in much of the phrasing in the constitution, judicial interpretation of the constitution can be considered both necessary and inevitable (Comer, Gruhl et al., 2001). The courts have the power to declare unconstitutional the actions of the other branches and units of the government in what is known as judicial review (Tannahil, 2002). The first case in which the court elaborated on the principle of judicial review was that of Marbury v. Madison in 1803 and put forward that in the case of conflict between the constitution and a statute, it is “the duty of the judicial department to say what the law is” (Smith, 1975). Following this, the case of Fletcher v Peck (1810) is of equal importance as it was the first case in which a state law was declared by the court to be unconstitutional. Both of these cases go to show that judicial interpretation allows some flexibility into the constitution. It allows things that are not expressly stated in the constitution to be made
The case of Marbury v. Madison will always be considered one of the most important cases ever decide by the Supreme Court. The Court’s ruling has been discussed and examined by many law scholars throughout the world. This essay summarizes the case and explains the implications of it regarding the powers of the Judicial Branch.
Gerald Rosenberg begins his book by posing the questions he will attempt to answer for the reader throughout the rest of the text: Under what conditions do courts produce political and social change? And how effective have the courts been in producing social change under such past decisions as Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education? He then works to define some of the principles and view points 'currently' held about the US Supreme court system.
Groups of people that hold a certain belief or have an idea different from other groups. A faction is basically a group of people who all agree upon the same thing and their point of view is different from other factions. factions can be small and others can be big, but each one is different. factions are organized and there are many factions inside the U.S.
In the Federalist Paper No.10, Madison share his ideas about factions and discusses the problems associated with factions. According to Madison, faction is a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, advised to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community (Madison, 1787). In this essay, Madison mentioned that there were two ways to remove the causes of factions, or political parties. First way was destroyed the liberty essential to their existence. This remedy would be worse than the disease. Madison explains that taking away liberty in order to control a faction is more harmful than the faction itself. Moreover, he also stated "Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an
In the Federalist Paper number 51, Madison writes to the people of New York to explain that it is necessary for a separation of powers between the departments of the government. Madison, with the help of Hamilton, wrote the Federalist Papers to explain sections of the Constitution. In Federalist Paper number 51, Madison explains that the government does not have a strong structure on the outside, but creating a firm structure within the government could be a solution. The firmer structure would be the separation of powers. In order for the people to get a better idea and make a more accurate judgement about the separation of powers, Madison shares observations and puts them into simpler terms.
Justice Thurgood Marshall said in his “Reflections on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution”, “I do not believe the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia Convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice exhibited by the framers particularly profound. To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, that we hold as fundamental as today” (Marshall). In this passage of his essay, Judge Marshall is critical of the government that is
In the United States government, there are three branches called the legislative, executive, and judicial branch. Out of these three, the judicial branch is the most powerful. The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court, the court with the most power in the country, and other federal courts that are lower in the system; the purpose of this branch is to look over laws and make sure they are constitutional and reasonable. This process is called judicial review; judicial review by definition is the “power of a court to declare acts of governmental bodies contrary to the Constitution null and void” (Neubauer and Meinhold 492). Chief Justice John Marshall first brought up this power in the
The Federalist papers are a series of documents created by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. The papers discuss how the new government system that was beginning to be developed in the 1780s was going to work and be carried out. The authors wanted to write the Federalist papers to create a document that would help to interpret the United States constitution. Federalist papers #10 and #51 were both written by James Madison.
The editorial discloses the power that the Court adheres to and whether it should be accountable for the decision making of fugitive slaves. The writer had discussed that in no way did the verdict of the Dred Scott case follow an act of law, but was merely “nullity.” During the settlement, they decided that since Dred Scott’s master had brought him on free land in Missouri or of the United States without having a citizenship, which resulted in him having no case. It continues on to say that the jurisdiction of the case was influenced by opinion, which did not involve any legalities. The text also alluded to previous court cases, such as Marshall vs. Court and the National Back, where Congress was declared to having unconstitutional implementations, that were based on a loose structure.
The Federalist Papers were, and still are, very important to American History. These series of essays, mostly written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, were published to persuade Americans to ratify the new constitution. The new constitution would replace the Articles of Confederation, what the American’s had been living under at the time. The constitution highlighted an issue that the articles did not; empowering the central government like never before. Allowing the central government to act in the interest of the United States. The main point of The Federalist Papers and the Constitution was to unify America. The Federalist Papers outlined what American’s can expect from the new constitution. Between 1786 and 1787 they were used to educate American’s about the constitution and they are used for the same reason today.
Judicial selection is an intriguing topic as there are multiple ways that judges take their seat on the bench. The United States Constitution spells out how federal judges are selected and leaves it up to the individual states to establish their means for selecting judges. In federal courts, judges are appointed and it varies between appointment and election for state courts. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences between appointments and elections (as well as the multiple types of elections) and to give an opinion as to which is the better alternative.