Judicial Review
When looking at the three branches of government one sees all the power that the people have given them. One is looking at all the great accomplishments in the history of the U.S.A. In the beginning, the United States government was formed in the intent of having the power fall in the order of executive, legislative, and then judicial. Although this was supposed to be the case, now in the modern age the judicial branch holds the most power. This is largely because of the system of checks and balances. They have the power to impeach the President and members of the Congress. They also have the power of holding a man's life in their hands. Finally, they also have the power to tell society what is right and wrong.
One of the judicial systems many powers is to impeach the President and members of Congress. This is done via the system of checks and balances. This is very important because they now can make sure that the public officials are obeying, and not above the law. This was the case of President Nixon. The power to impeach officials is also used to make sure that the officials are acting morally and in the best interests of the country. This was the case of President Clinton's near impeachment.
The next power that the judicial system has is that of holding a man's life in the balance. With all the criminal activity that is going on in today's society, this branch of government is becoming more and more involved and powerful. They can sentence a man to life in prison or even give the criminal the death penalty in extreme cases. I do believe however, that the court system is not very efficient in the way a murderer can get off almost scott free because of one little slip up in the law.
The last and maybe the most influential power that the judicial system has is the power to decide and tell the public what is right and wrong. This is useful to shape the future of the country. As an example I give you the issue of gun control. With all the school shootings they must decide what to do with the right to bear arms amendment in the Bill of Rights. If they get rid of the right to bear arms then this will assure that only criminals and police will have guns.
The three branches of the federal government is the Legislative, Judicial, and the Executive branch. According to the federalist papers, the Legislative branch is the strongest branch since they enact laws, therefore, by cutting the legislative branch in half by creating a Senate and a House of representatives, it makes the separation of powers more of a level playing field. Furthermore, the Judicial branch is considered the weakest out of the three since it has "...no influence over either the sword or the purse... can take no active resolution whatever... neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must... depend upon the aid of the executive arm... for... judgments” (Hamilton, Federalist 78) This means that it has no monetary or military power and that it relies directly on the legislative and executive branches to follow their rulings which makes sure that the government does not have too much power individually. Therefore, since it is the weakest branch, the court has the power of judicial review, which is the ability to decide whether acts by the other branches are constitutional or not (Hamilton, Federalist 78). Furthermore, one should not be concerned about the use of excess of power since according to Hamilton these are good people who aren’t influenced by outside sources other than the constitution. The separation of these three branches creates a system of checks and balances in which each individual form of government is independent of one another and is able to ensure that each other do not step out of line (Hamilton, Federalist
The Constitution confers judicial power on the Supreme Court and on inferior courts as created by Congress (Hames & Ekern, 2013). Judicial review is the power of the court to interpret the Constitution and invalidate conflicting laws.
...09). Congress is supposed to enact laws, and the ability of judges to modify them with court decisions shows how their power may extend past what the system of checks and balances had intended. The last aspect that shows how powerful this branch may be is the judges. Originally, the lifetime appointment was supposed to relieve them of pressures when deciding cases, but this serves as a double edged sword. Judges without fear of retribution shows the amount of power that they posses. Overall, the development of judicial review, judges lifetime appointment, and ability to modify laws has led to an unbalance of power by the Judicial Branch among the three branches of government.
The Judiciary Branch offers checks and balances to the other branches of government. To both the Legislative and Executive branches, the Judicial Branch holds the power of judicial review. The Judicial branch can also declare existing laws as unconstitutional.
It did not originally have the power of judicial review until 1803 in the case of Marbury vs. Madison (Young, 283), which then gave the Supreme Court the power to interpret the Constitution and overrule any law or action that was unconstitutional. As part of the political system, the selection of judges has choice of the President and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, federal Judges are in the seat until they resign or die and are independent of the President's influence. (Burns, 360-361) For example, the chief justice of the United States is appointed and holds tenure for life.
People have always been concerned about our judicial system making massive decisions in an undemocratic manner and while there are parts of our nation’s history (Jost). There have been decisions that were dreadful for our nation, Dred Scott v. Sandford; but there are decisions that everyone can agree with in retrospect, Brown v. Board of Education. Also, there are decisions that still divide us as a nation, Bush v. Gore and Roe V. Wade. There are a lot of issues that come from our current judicial system; however, I understand that the problems that come from it are not going to come from any quick fix, and we may have to live with some of them. Looking at the history of the judicial branch of the United States Government, I believe it needs to be limited in its judicial review power, but have certain exceptions where necessary in some cases.
The founding fathers of the American Constitution divided the government up into the following three branches to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist; legislative, judicial, and executive. The three braches were created by the Constitution: Article 1, Legislative branch made up of the House and the Senate, collectively known as Congress; Article 2, Executive branch, or President; Article 3, Judicial branch, made up of the federal courts and the Supreme Court. This was done in efforts to distribute power amongst the three so that one would not have more power than the other. Each branch has the ability to check the power of the other branches. This power check of the other branches is referred to as the checks and balances, better known as the Separation of Powers. This was to prevent tyriny.
The federal courts system consists of the highest court, which is the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress has three basic responsibilities under the Constitution that determine how the federal courts will operate. First, it authorizes the creation of all federal courts below the Supreme Court, defines the jurisdiction of the courts, and decides how many judges there should be for each court. Second, through the confirmation process, the Senate determines which of the President's judicial nominees ultimately become federal judges. Third, Congress approves the federal courts' budget and appropriates money for the judiciary to operate. The judiciary's budget is a very small part about two-tenth...
The basic idea between the creation of the three branches is based upon “checks and balances.” No branch should become so powerful that it over-takes either of the other branches. This also brings out the point that neither one of these branches, nor any person holding office in one of them, can exercise power belonging to either of the others. The legislative branch creates the laws, the judicial branch reviews the law, and then the executive branch enforces the laws. All three branches are interrelated, each branch overlaps but serves separate purposes.
The United States Government is divided into three branches of government. These three branches are the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. The legislative branch consists of congress, and congress is responsible for making laws. Next, is the executive branch, this ranch consists of the president, vice president, and other courts. The executive branch is responsible for carrying out and enforcing laws.
Judiciary as the Most Powerful Branch of Government In answering this question I will first paint a picture of the power that the court holds, and decide whether this is governmental power. Then I will outline the balances that the court must maintain in its decision making and therefore the checks on its actions as an institution that governs America. "Scarcely any political question arises that is not resolved sooner or later into a judicial question." (Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America) If we take Tocqueville on his word then the American Judiciary truly is in a powerful position.
There are three branches of government in the U.S. There is the judicial branch, the executive branch and the legislative branch. The powers of the branches are all divided by the constitution which is called the separation of
The judiciary branch is the seen as the “least dangerous” branch; therefore, it will not be able to attack the way the other two branches can and it cannot defend itself against attacks. The judicial branch is only seen as one that can pass judgment on cases that are either constitutional or unconstitutional, but it cannot act on it; therefore, the reason they are seen as less dangerous and cannot compare to the power that the executive and legislative branch have. They have to hear appeals,
The Judiciary Act of 1789 not only set up the federal court system and used the Court’s jurisdiction under the Constitution as a basis for granting it broad powers that are recognized everywhere. According to Abraham (1983), “There is no gainsaying the importance and the majesty of the most powerful of courts, not only in the United States, but the entire free world (p. 19).” The French political observer Alexis de Tocqueville noted the uniqueness of the Supreme Courts in the history of nations and jurisprudence. He stated, “The representative system of government has been adopted in several states of Europe, but I am unaware that any nation of the globe has hitherto organized judicial power in the same manner as the Americans. . . . A more imposing judicial power was never constituted by any people (qtd in Abraham, 1983, p. 27).
The debate over the legitimacy of the role of judicial review in the United States constitutional democracy has been around since the creation of the Constitution. The power of judicial review can be considered antidemocratic because it isn’t directly stated in the Constitution, of the authority of unelected judges and the fact that it sometimes resists the majority. Despite these claims, I believe judicial review is a constitutional doctrine, which arose from the historical process of persuasive reasoning in rulings, institutional prestige, the cooperation of political branches, and general public opinion.