Supreme Court Decisions - Research Paper Example

Supreme Court Decisions Supreme Court in any country has a man providing the highest profile legal rulings on matters of national significance (Vining &Teena 710). The court, therefore, comprises of highly competent and knowledgeable lawmakers. In the U.S.A, for example, this court comprises of chief justice and a panel of eight justices. The sitting president does nomination and the senate confirms the appointees. Over many years, the manner in which the supreme courts carry out their duties has experienced drastic changes demanding amendments of laws to fit the changing ways of life.

The way handling of the cases took place before 1937 and the time after, up to the current time has seen quite a milestone of changes as explained in this essay. In the beginning of supreme courts, the number of cases was few. The court never had its own home even in the developed countries, for example, U.S.A. and, it was not highly recognized. Later in time, judicial review gave more powers and recognition of the system. A case example is a case involving civil procedure under section 581 of the law in California.

The plaintiff applied for the dismissal of the court. The shareholder in his application argued that there was the need of following the necessary procedures before forming the court and that it violated his rights (Vinning &Teena 715). In its judgment, the court gave these statements: the plaintiff did not have any right to sue the court since its formation was legal before his motion and a corporation could better petition this. Another argument from the case is that the decision only lied on the hands of the court and never to the plaintiff.

Despite this ruling, it had no much impact since at that time, in California, the termination of the case lay in the discretion of the court. There was also a possibility of the shareholder in the case to dismiss it if it happens that no any other member of the public had any interest in the petition. The major consideration by the rulings made at that time was that the judges based their argument on interests of the corporate members and not an individual. One may tend to think that it is unfair for such a ruling but in California at that time, the discretion of the court lied in preventing individuals from personal interests in matters related to the whole nation (Vinning &Teena 717).

In around 1950’s, establishment of Supreme Court expanded and broadened its mandate in California as well as other countries. It had more mandate in providing constitutional interpretation, and during the time of the Second World War, it always favored the government. This demonstrated a significant transition in the way of the court’s respect as compared to the earlier time during its formation. In most of the countries, all the citizens pledged their allegiance to the law. The law turned to be of a high profile compared to other laws that existed (Hale, et al. 19.) In another case, to show the changes in the judicial system, there was a petition in court to seek media coverage of the court proceedings.

This was because of the technological improvements in social media, and all the people in the nation wanted to be enlightened on what was happening in their country. An American scholar (Hale, et al. 19) studied the perception of the chief justice about the possibility of media coverage before the hearing of the case. He used a case study of 96 cases and the results were in favor. After the petition, the judges allowed the U.S.A media houses to air high profile coverage of Supreme Court decisions.

The ruling was because of public demand, though the petition was individual. In their ruling, judges pointed out that the initiative could allow the public to assess the executive as well as the legislative organs of the government. The judicial system was now in full control of enforcing the law and upholds the rights of all genres in the society. The judgment worked closely to the research done by different scholars showing the relationship that lie between the political class and the media.

The judges wanted to ensure that there is total commitment in the political class in their service to the public. Vining and Teena722, in their study, concluded that the media coverage used the following in assessing the stories to air: the impact of the story, scandals, acquaintance and timeliness. From the two cases described in the essay, it is clear that the judicial system has undergone frequent transformations. In the early stages of setting up of supreme courts, most people remained opposed to the idea.

In California, for example, despite the fact that the judges could make rulings, the rulings did not have much impact to the people’s way of life. Life continued as normal. Later in time, the people started respecting the rulings made by the judges. The priority of the court in the two cases slightly differs. In the early time the court protected the government, whereas, in the second case, the court puts the public interest first. The structure of the Supreme Court remains unchanged in the two cases (Hale, et al. 19). Synopsis of the court cases In the first case, the plaintiff petitioned the establishment of the Supreme Court challenging the civil procedure under section 581 of the law in California.

This petition was unsuccessful since the court ruled out, because it did not represent the views of the public but just an individual. Despite this ruling, the court, however, did not have much hearing by the public. The second case was to allow the media to show high profile Supreme Court cases in the U.S.A. The judges allowed the coverage to be aired in the whole nation, to make the work of the highest-level court in land perform its duties. The major objective of the judiciary is to safe guard the community from incompetent politics and other social enemies (Vining &Teena 718).

Works cited Hale, et al. "Recent Decisions." California Law Review 26.2 (2005): 261. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2012. Vining, Richard & Teena, Wilhelm. "Explaining High-Profile Coverage of State Supreme Court Decisions." Social Science Quarterly 91.3 (2010): 704-723.Full Text. Web. 4 Mar. 2012.