The Power of The Judiciary
When the founding fathers of our country, and by that I mean the
Federalists, were creating the system of government for America, they knew that
a separation of power would be necessary to protect the American people from the
evils of a monarchy or dictatorship. In doing this, they created the three
branches of government; Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary. The plan was to
have the Legislative make the laws, Executive enforce the laws, and the
Judiciary interpret the laws, and it was Madison's system of "Checks and
Balances" that would keep the three in check. No one branch would be able to
exploit it's power without the scrutiny of one of the other branches, it seemed
to be the perfect system. However, when the Federalists proposed this system of
"Checks and Balances," they really didn't consider the Judiciary that much of a
threat of power, and because it wasn't considered a policy making branch like
the Executive and Legislative, it really wasn't thought of as part of that
system. Basically, the Judiciary would make sure that no law was unfairly
enforced on somebody, and anything else would merely be a bonus. The system of
"Checks and Balances" would then be the Executive watching over the Legislative,
and the Legislative watching over the Executive. To be more specific it would
be Congress watching over the President and the President watching over Congress.
(The Federalist Papers, #51)
This system, as I mentioned earlier seemed to be the perfect protection
against tyranny of any kind, and in fact it is quite effective, but I feel the
problem is in that the Federalists didn't take into account that the Judiciary
would in fact become a policy making branch in itself, with the power to check
any one of the other two branches just as much as they would check each other.
Robert Dahl wrote, "To consider the Supreme Court of the United States strictly
as a legal institution is to underestimate its significance in the America
political system. For it is also a political institution, an institution, that
is to say, for arriving at decisions on controversial questions of national
policy." (Dahl, Role of the Supreme Court Symposium, pg.279) The point here is
that proportionately, the Judiciary yie...
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... through the
decisions they have yielded. Countless other examples exist to back up this
claim, but it would be entirely too monotonous to go through them all.
In conclusion, I feel we have shown that the Judiciary branch has
evolved into an equally powerful branch of government as the Executive and
Legislative. Through the use Constitutional interpretation the Supreme Court
has proven itself to be an important policy making institution in the American
political system. I sustain that the founders did not expect the Judiciary to
become such a force in the policy making arena, but considering the way they set
up the Constitution, I do not think they would be disappointed by the way the
Judiciary has dealt with such controversial issues. It is my understanding that
the Judiciary is just as an important branch of government as the Executive and
Legislative, and that it has succeeded in the important duty of "checking" them
as well. With so many issues yet to be resolved, look for the Judiciary branch
to gain recognition as a policy maker, and to continue to uphold and interpret
the laws set up by the founders in the Constitution.
doc C. -. So they made three branches to balance the power out. One branch does not have all the power. Legislative branch can approve things from the other two branches. That rule goes with the other two branches.
Each branch is given specific powers and responsibilities, many of which overlap. However, “it is clear, when push comes to shove, that Congress can trump the other two branches” (14). Congress struggles to keep its head above the water when communicating with the other branches. Article One of the Constitution is about the Legislative branch and is twice as long as Article Two, which is about the Executive branch. In contrast, Article One is four times as long as Article Three, which is on the judiciary. The Framers of the Constitution did this to make it “clear that Congress was to be first among equals of the three branches” (14).
As ordered by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, Congress was given the power to “exercise continuous watchfulness” over the executive branch and its subsidiary agencies and programs. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 went one step further in granting oversight powers to Congress by authorizing House and Senate committees to “review and study, on a continuing basis the application, administration and execution” of laws.
As James Madison points out in Federalist Paper #47, if all the branches were combined to form one single overpowering division, then tyranny would for sure ensue. He states, “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” In order to retain the rights and liberty of our country, the government’s power must be balanced. Each branch vests its power into smaller groups.
With having this it has helped keep tyranny away. “The three branches should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” - James Madison. This quote is saying that the three branches should be separated but not too separated to the point where one has more power than the other two do or vice versa. The legislature can check the power of the executive is by overriding a presidents veto. This can be good so therefore if the congress wants a law passed that the president does not want passed then they can pass it (The constitution of the United States of America, 1787). Therefore creating the checks and balances has helped guard against
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.
Madison touches on the importance of ‘checks and balances’ and why they play such a huge role in distributing power among the branches. Checks and balances are meant to check the levels of government and to ens...
On June 26, 2015, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right in the decision on Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al. This controversial decision overturned the law of more than 17 states. In the 5-4 decision, Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan voted with the majority and Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito were dissenting. At the heart of the controversy is the philosophy of judicial restraint and judicial activism. Was the Obergefell decision an example of judicial activism? Certainly, because it declared state laws banning same-sex marriages as unconstitutional. The Court’s decision, which was based on precedent and interpretation of the Constitution, was just.
The courtroom is a ritualised space, involving costume, language, spatial organisation and so on, and courts, therefore, constitute performative exercises of power. Discuss some of the ways in which courts demonstrate power and/or power relations.
Phaedra Trethan. (2013). The Three Branches of US Government. Retrieved November 25, 2013, from About.com US Government Info: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/usconstitution/a/branches.htm
supreme court but the United States is of a considerable size unlike countries in Europe so the
...utive branch to gain an amount of power it had never had before. Despite this, Congress retains the benefits of that original constitutional favor and the battle for supremacy between the legislative and the executive branches has become a close one. The legislative branch, however, has a stability of power stemming directly from the Constitution that allows it to remain steadily powerful regardless of circumstances. The executive branch is much more susceptible to the effects of the times and the nature of the people elected to the office. This stability of power makes Congress unquestionably the lastingly dominant branch of American government.
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.
INTRODUCTION: Parliament, the supreme law-making body, has unrestricted legislative power, and the laws it passes cannot be set aside by the courts. The role of judges, in relation to laws enacted by Parliament, is to interpret and apply them, rather than to pass judgment on whether they are good or bad laws. However, evidence has shown that they have a tendency to deviate from their ‘real roles’ and instead formulate laws on their own terms. Thus, the real role of a judge in any legal system continues to be a phenomenon questioned by many.
As we go into these scenarios that we put in place, keep in mind how they would work in a political system of a country. It is important that each branch works together in a seamless manner, and each one has its own level of powers. Like a sports team, every position is important. It is also very important to understand how all of these very different systems work.