Pros And Cons Of Judicial Review

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Pros and Cons of Judicial Review

Judicial Review is the power given to Supreme court justices in which a

judge has the power to reason whether a law is unconstitutional or not. Chief

Justice John Marshall initiated the Supreme Court's right to translate the

Constitution in 1803 following the case of Marbury Vs. Madison, in which he

declared the Supreme Court as the sole interpreters of Constitutional law. This

is one of the sole purposes of the Supreme Court of the United States. Many

Historical thinkers would find some difficulty in imagining a government set up

to limit the power of itself,but others would argue that this form of government

best works for the people, and not against them. The treatment of the

Constitution by the Supreme Court as a "living" document that is able to be

translated differently over time for the good of the people has as many skeptics

as it does supporters. But, if we do not allow the Supreme Court to translate

the Constitution who then, should the people chose to do such an important job.

If we were to look back at the ideas and thoughts of some of the

greatest political thinkers of our time, we would find that individuals such as

Plato, Niccolo Machiavelli, and John Locke, would share extremely different

views as to whether or not Judicial review, and the Supreme Court as a whole,

would be successful in their ideal government situations.

One of the earliest political philosophers Plato, would find our

present day governmental setup of the Supreme Court to be the ideal group to

deal with the United States' situation. Plato felt that government should be run

by enlightened philosopher kings, that would rule for the good of the people,

and not themselves. We today see the Supreme Court as a collection of the most

"enlightened" thinkers of our day. They are chosen to make moral decisions about

laws made by others in our society, and decide whether or not the laws we make

are in the best interest of our nation as a whole. Plato knew that within any

political State their would be corruption, to stop the corruption Plato felt

that the philosopher kings would best rule because they would not indulge

themselves in a corrupt society. They only believed in the truth, and justice

that government is supposed to protect its people with.

Although Plato would not totally agree with the Democratic structure of

our government, I believe that he would chose for our society, a state that is

ruled by a similar group to that of our Supreme Court because, the members of

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