The appointment and conformation to the Supreme Court has become on of the most sought after and most prestigious positions in the U.S. Government. In the past two hundred years the Supreme Court has changed in many different ways and with each decision affecting the delicate balance of the U.S. legal system the appointment of justices has become a very watched over subject. In all conformation and appointment to the Supreme Court there is politics involved but with each presiding president their agenda is focused towards appointing a justice that expresses their ideas on the court.
The Appointment process is delegated to the president in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution and states, “shall nominate, and by with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges to the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law. Which means that when a justice leaves the president can appoint a replacement to the court however the Supreme Court must confirm them with a majority vote.
When a justice decides to step down the current president must make a very important decision in going through the hundreds of qualified judges. Since the beginning of the Supreme Court there has been 108 members, which makes it one of the most exclusive government jobs in the world. All but four of the justices have been white male two were female and the other two were black. There is no age limit on how old a justice may be, and no requirement that a justice must be from the United States. There is one common trend that all justices have is that they have all been lawyers. However many justices never graduated or even attended law school, they gained their legal experience by others means. John Rutledge and john Blair received their legal experience at the Inns of Court in England. James F. Byrnes received his legal experience as a law clerk and passed the bar at age 24, even though he never graduated from high school.2
Since all of the justices have been lawyers most have been judges before being appointed to the Supreme Court, forty-one justices have had experience at the state level and thirty-one at the federal level. The ...
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...s at Stanford Law, first was William H. Rhenquist had been first, only to find out that being a woman could only get her a job as a law clerk.3 She was confirmed by a 99-0 vote the largest margin in history.5
In the Supreme Court the confirmation process is getting harder and harder to pass for nominees who have certain political opinions about certain topics. In 1987 Robert Bork, a member of the Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., was nominated by Reagan. Bork was not confirmed by a 58-42 vote because of his writings on constitutional topics that were not appeasing to the senate.1
The Supreme Court currently has six white males, two white females, and one African American sitting on the Court today. I believe this will change very soon because most of the justices are getting rather old, but it doesn’t mean they lack judgment. In the near future whether it will be president George W. Bush or another president the court will change and it is my opinion that we will see and hear on of the most important conformations in history.
Hall, Kermit L, eds. The Oxford guide to United States Supreme Court decisions New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Chief Justice John Marshall affected the American Judicial System. The reader will therefore first find a brief biography of John Marshall. Then the paper will explain in detail the origins of the Judicial Power to subsequently...
Gevinson, A. (2009, July 28). Supreme Court Nominations | Teachinghistory.org. Retrieved February 19, 2014, from http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/22435
One of which includes Rancho Viejo vs. Norton. Not only was he for making the shopping mall but he ignored the fact that this would interfere with an already endangered species. He was also part of the group that allowed a police officer to unlawfully search a vehicle without a warrant during the US. Vs. Brown case. John Roberts also voted for the Obama care act in which was almost denied as it was considered unconstitutional. Despite having a successful background, John Roberts can considerably be noted as being very controversial as he has made some arguable calls in his
Segall, Eric J. "Supreme Court Justices: The Case for Hanging It Up." Los Angeles Times.
Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America? Is a conglomeration of articles and short essays that attempts to expose the federal court’s relatively recent intrusion into our way of life by way of immoral legislative influence; made possible by presidents, congressmen, and apathetic voters who have relinquished their consent without contest. The author, Mark I. Sutherland and his associates believe that the Constitution’s system of checks and balances between the three branches of government has been usurped by an overreaching, immoral federal court system. The book explores how Judges have been influencing and shaping social and political policy for years by legislating from the judicial bench. In short, Americans have exchanged the rule of law for the rule by the judges. However, it does a poor job in addressing other major issues concerning the federal court system as a whole.
Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges are elected in nonpartisan statewide elections. Mid-term vacancices are filled by appointment. State law requires that nominees are state residents and have practiced law for a minimum of seven years.
There are 7 justices and 1 chief justice within the high court. 7 justices will be required for constitutional cases and 5 justices are required for cases in regards to different matters.
The life of every American citizen, whether they realize it or not, is influenced by one entity--the United States Supreme Court. This part of government ensures that the freedoms of the American people are protected by checking the laws that are passed by Congress and the actions taken by the President. While the judicial branch may have developed later than its counterparts, many of the powers the Supreme Court exercises required years of deliberation to perfect. In the early years of the Supreme Court, one man’s judgement influenced the powers of the court systems for years to come. John Marshall was the chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835, and as the only lasting Federalist influence in a newly Democratic-Republican government, he and his fellow justices sought to perpetuate their Federalist principles in the United States’ court system. In one of the most memorable court cases of all time--the case of Marbury v. Madison-- Marshall established the idea of judicial review and strengthened the power of the judicial branch in the government. Abiding by his Federalist ideals, Marshall decided cases that would explicitly limit the power of the state government and broaden the strengths of the national government. Lastly, the Marshall Court was infamous for determining the results of cases that dealt with the interpretation of the Constitution and the importance of contracts in American society. The Marshall Court, over the span of a mere three decades, managed to influence the life of every American citizen even to this day by impacting the development of the judicial branch, establishing a boundary between the state and national government, and making declarations on the sanctity of contracts ("The Marshall Court"...
Presently the supreme court has nine members, which include one Chief Justice and eight associate Justices. The Chief Justice Appoints each associate Justice to oversee one or more various circuits. Every year the Supreme Court has a term in which it revues selected cases. This term starts on the first Monday of October and ends either in the end of June or the beginning of July. During this term the Justices review one-hundred out of 6,000 or so cases with no clear guidelines on which ones they must look at.
"John Roberts on the Issues." OnTheIssues.org - Candidates on the Issues. On the Issues, n.d.
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.
The strategic model acknowledges that judges seek to achieve policy goals, but it also acknowledges that they are subject to certain restrictions in doing so. Since they cannot act accordingly to preference, they must act strategically to achieve their goals given by the restrictions. It argues that like politicians, justices make their decisions based off other’s decisions or make their decisions while trying to determine how another person will react from it. This decision style says justices would base their decisions on the influence of other justices.
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.