The Supreme Court has embraced its objective to assist the government in its framework and structuring through law as well as the interpretation of the law. However, plenty of their work has remained a mystery to the general public. Jeffrey Toobin enlightened the audience in The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court; however, most curious to me was the manner in which Jeffrey Toobin speculates that Justice Thomas, a Justice he has since criticized in The New Yorker as disgraceful, was selected because of his race, in effort to balance racial equality on the beach(31). I think this is important because it has the potential to taint Toobin;s book with the influence ways in which he seems to want Justice Thomas to be perceived.
Justice Thomas appointment was deliberate in that he presented the African American demographic, but also because he retained conservative views. Justice Thomas was approved by the smallest of margins, 52-48, and has been “unusually reticent in answering the senators’ questions” so as to avoid the same fate as nominee Bork” (Toobin 25, 31). Toobin’s interpretation of Justice Thomas was curious. Clarence Thomas might have been professionally silent, but was repeatedly open to expressing his beliefs and views, especially with his supporters. He has also clarified that he does not ask questions so as to not badger the lawyers (Zurcher). The professional silence of Justice Thomas within the Supreme Court helps to illustrate not only the complexity of the Supreme Court and its composition, but also in the manner which silence and arguable inaction can concretely impact the operation and perception of the Supreme Court.
Justice Thomas can be viewed as a less influential figure in more current times...
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...Toobin, Jeffrey. “Clarence Thomas’s Disgraceful Silence.” The New Yorker. N.p., 21 Feb 2014.
Web 11 March 2014. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/02/Clarence-thomas- disgraceful-silence.html>.
Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. New York: Dubleday,
2007. Print.
Totenberg,Nina. ‘Clarence Thomas” Influence On The Supreme Court.” NPR. NPR, 11 Oct.
2011. Web Mar 11. 2014.
Thomas-influence-on-the-court>.
Welsh-Huffins, Andrew. Dennis McGuire;s Last –Mintue Plea To Avoid Execution Rejected. 15
Jan. 2014. Web 18 Mar. 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/dennis-mcguire_n_4605115.html.
Zurcher, Anthony. ‘Clarence Thomas: Supreme Court Sphinx.” BBC News. N.p., 21 Feb. 2014.
Web. 12 Mar. 2014. .
Although a portion of Leuchtenburg’s evidence supporting his opinion on which case constituted a constitutional revolution involved the shift in the Court’s decision-making, the question of the reason for the shift in the Court begs to be explained. At the time, during the case of West Coast v. Parrish, the court seemed to be in sorts fueled by politics. The Justices were concerned with the consequences that could very well up rise from their reluctance to approve the standard legislation. In other words, they may have shifted their votes in hopes of saving the traditional foundation. Justice Roberts’ voting decisions would then need to be closely examined seeing that he supported the liberal side in 1934 concerning the case of Nebbia v. New York, supported the conservative side in 1935-1936 concerning the Rail Pension and Tipaldo, and then returned to suppor...
The court case of Marbury v. Madison (1803) is credited and widely believed to be the creator of the “unprecedented” concept of Judicial Review. John Marshall, the Supreme Court Justice at the time, is lionized as a pioneer of Constitutional justice, but, in the past, was never really recognized as so. What needs to be clarified is that nothing in history is truly unprecedented, and Marbury v. Madison’s modern glorification is merely a product of years of disagreements on the validity of judicial review, fueled by court cases like Eakin v. Raub; John Marshall was also never really recognized in the past as the creator of judicial review, as shown in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford.
In America’s time there have been many great men who have spent their lives creating this great country. Men such as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson fit these roles. They are deemed America’s “founding fathers” and laid the support for the most powerful country in history. However, one more man deserves his name to be etched into this list. His name was John Marshall, who decided case after case during his role as Chief Justice that has left an everlasting mark on today’s judiciary, and even society itself. Through Cases such as Marbury v. Madison (1803) and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) he established the Judicial Branch as an independent power. One case in particular, named Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), displayed his intuitive ability to maintain a balance of power, suppress rising sectionalism, and unite the states under the Federal Government.
Gevinson, A. (2009, July 28). Supreme Court Nominations | Teachinghistory.org. Retrieved February 19, 2014, from http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/22435
For more than a dozen years, Clarence Earl Gideon lay buried in a nondescript, unmarked grave in Hannibal, Missouri. Most Americans outside of the legal community (and many within it) would neither recognize Gideon's name, nor understand the seismic impact he had on our legal system. Fortunately, Anthony Lewis, the renowned journalist now retired from The New York Times, chronicled Gideon's saga from the filing of his hand-written petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court to the momentous decision of March 18, 1963. Lewis brings to life the story of the man behind the case, the legal machinations of the court appointed lawyer (and others working with him) toiling on Gideon's behalf and the inner-workings of the Supreme Court. By telling the story, Lewis has preserved an important piece of legal and social history and we are all the richer for his doing so.
Based on the pronouncements of the court on May 17, 1954, everyone in the courtroom was shocked after it became clear that Marshall was right in his claim about the unconstitutionality of legal segregation in American public schools. Essentially, this court’s decision became a most important turning point in U.S. history because the desegregation case had been won by an African American attorney. Additionally, this became a landmark decision in the sense that it played a big role in the crumbling of the discriminatory laws against African Americans and people of color in major socioeconomic areas, such as employment, education, and housing (Stinson, 2008). Ultimately, Marshall’s legal achievements contributed significantly to the criminal justice field.
Thurgood Marshall was one of the famous Supreme Court judges who had a huge impact on the justice department regarding the civil rights and the society in general. One of the notable quotes by Justice Marshall was that "power, not reason is the currency of this court decision making." This quote has a lot of implication regarding the civil rights, during the time Marshall had observed a change in the judicial system regarding composition to the judges (Vile, and Joseph 14). There was a transformation in the courts where senior judges had retired paving a way for younger justices. These changes also affected the perception and views of the justice, regarding civil rights. The shift from analysis
New York: Library of America, 1998. 63-84. The 'Secondary' of the 'S “Trial by Jury.” Time 3 Oct. 1955: 18-19. “The Place, the Acquittal.”
Newmyer, R. Kent. John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court. Baton Rouge:
Smith, Robert C. "Supreme Court." Encyclopedia of African-American Politics. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. African-American History Online. Facts on File, Inc. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.
Hall, Kermit L, eds. The Oxford guide to United States Supreme Court decisions New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
...e to breach Supreme Court sovereignty would render the different minorities, residing in the United States, helpless to further governmental legislature justifying racial discrimination. In their struggle to preserve racial inequality segregationists immorally resorted to using violence against children. Through “a sharp realisation of the shameful discrimination directed at small children” the world perceived an inconsistency in a nation that preached freedom for all, though denied the very same right to its children. Ernest Green and the other eight students “learned unmistakably that they possessed irresistible power” during the crisis but only if they realised it and united against discrimination and racism.
Columbia Law Review, 104, 1-20. doi:10.2307/4099343. Reynolds, S. (2009). The 'Standard'. An interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The significant impact Robert Dahl’s article, “Decision-Making in a Democracy: the Supreme Court as a National Policy-Maker” created for our thought on the Supreme Court it that it thoroughly paved the way towards exemplifying the relationship between public opinion and the United States Supreme Court. Dahl significantly was able to provide linkages between the Supreme Court and the environment that surrounds it in order for others to better understand the fundamental aspects that link the two together and explore possible reasoning and potential outcomes of the Court.
The given statement suggests that the emphasis on judicial diversity is unnecessary since there is no guarantee that a diverse judiciary would arrive at a different decision than that of a conservative judiciary. This essay attempts to argue that although there is no evidence that a diverse bench would radically change the outcome of a given case, the quality of justice will be substantially enhanced by the inclusion of a range of perspectives from which are currently not represented by the English judiciary.