The Warren Court

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The US Supreme Court was created in Article III of the Constitution and has the ultimate authority on the interpretation of constitutional law and is therefore deemed the highest court in the nation (USSC). The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices who review cases from lower courts throughout the nation and rule on the constitutionality of the issues (Urofsky, 2001). The Supreme Court plays a large role in the American legal system because its rulings become law, affecting subsequent cases throughout the nation. During the late fifties and sixties, a time known as the Warren Court, the Supreme Court handed down multiple rulings that were controversial and especially impactful in the area of criminal investigations.
The Warren Court represents the years from 1953 to 1969 when Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Urofsky, 2001). During the sixteen years of the Warren Court seventeen different men served under the leadership of Chief Justice Warren (Urofsky, 2001). These associate judges, and the order in which they took office, played a large part in the decisions that were passed because they affected the shift from a more conservative court in the first half of the Warren Court to a more liberal perspective that was prevalent in the second half of the Warren Court (cite?). It is the later, more liberal era of the Warren Court that is remembered for many of its landmark cases. Of the seventeen justices of the Warren Court there were a few that were consistently influential in decisions and well-known for their opinions. The four most influential and well-known justices other than Chief Justice Warren were Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, Joseph Brennan, and Thurgood Marshal...

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...e Supreme Court of the United States: http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/briefoverview.pdf
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