Is the US Supreme Court Too Powerful - Essay Example

Student’s Name: Course: Instructor’s Name: Date: Is the US Supreme Court too powerful? It is apparent that the United States’ Supreme Court is the highest court in the States. Over the federal and state courts, the Supreme Court has an ultimate appellate jurisdiction (Urofsky 590). On the other hand it has original jurisdiction on only a few cases. The membership of the court comprises of one chief justice and eight associate justices (Abraham 58-112). The Supreme Court justices just like other federal judges have a commitment to serve the court just as stated in the United States constitution in Article three. Cases that are referred to the high court must have passed through other subordinate courts. This happens if the parties involved are not satisfied with the decisions made under these courts. As a result, the Supreme Court is termed as the ultimate jurisdiction in any case. However, there has been criticism from legislators, politicians as well as the citizens in the United States on the activities of the Supreme Court in the United States with some labeling it as a court for the powerful or the elite class. Different arguments exists as to whether the Supreme Court of the United States is too powerful or not (Urofsky 590). This essay seeks to explore on this issue in detail. Those in support of the claim do not understand how why those in the court are only appointed as they feel that in its self is very undemocratic (McCloskey 78-158) This appointed people trample over those the citizens have elected and that becomes so unselfish of them. This people against the Supreme Court feel that the Courts choice to choose how many cases it can hear is not in order (McCloskey 78-158). Moreover these officials serve in the Court for a life time and the proposers of the claim feel that there is no job that guarantees a lifetime service and they therefore fell that the Supreme Court of United States is too than it really should. This can be clearly evidenced by the case between Madison and Marbury (McKeever 56-105). It was in this case that the Supreme Court exercised its power by declaring the laws unconstitutional. The president at the time appointed John Marbury to become the judge. However Marbury had not been given an official seal and Thomas used this as an excuse and denied him the judgeship. Marbury felt this was not right and he presented his petition in the Supreme Court with regard to the judiciary Act of 1789 (McKeever 56-105). The chief justice took advantage of the situation and he exercised his powers by claiming that the Act was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court officials then agreed to this and they gave the Court the powers to deem certain Acts as unconstitutional (McKeever 56-105). The supporters of the claim felt that the whole idea was ironic since the Supreme Court that is declaring certain Acts unconstitutional did not get their powers from the constitution itself (McKeever 56-105). Moreover, so many controversies exist in the Supreme Court (Fingerothand Martin 10-26). They range from the attempts to put justices in the president’s last second of his term to the pro against party hence enhancing problems for the president who gets to appoint the new judge (Fingeroth and Martin 10-26). A good example of this is the contemporary appointment of Sonia Sotomayor as a judge to the Supreme Court (Hartman et al. 225-330). The appointment was done by President Barrack Obama during the early days of his term. The appointment received mixed reactions from the Republican Party who enhance a controversy congress in an attempt to keep Judge Sonia Sotomayor away from the Supreme Court since they felt that she was liberal in her own views (Hartman et al. 225-330). However despite the efforts of the Republican Party, to stop Judge Sonia Sotomayor from being the judge, she was still appointed to be the 11th Judge of the Supreme Court (Hartman et al. 225-330). A similar scenario had happened during the early days of the presidential term of FDR (Hartman et al. 225-330). The president tried to pass a law that would enable him appoint a new judge once the acting got to 70 years but this received much controversy and it did not pass as a law (Hartman et al. 225-330). According to a republican congressman, Dr. Ron Paul, from Texas the United States federal courts are very powerful (Dubois and Smith 8-22). According to him, it becomes very difficult for the citizens to influence the laws that they must live under especially when the judges get to impose their choice of preferred policies on the citizens (Dubois and Smith 8-22). Similar reactions were expressed by Antonin Scalia a Supreme Court justice in the year 2004. The judge stated that the Supreme Court had become very powerful (Dubois and Smith 8-22). This is due to the fact that the Court defies the intentions of the United States constitution. Besides, Scalia criticized a common law between the judges whereby they change the meaning of the constitution far beyond the author’s intentions based on the assumptions about Congressional intent which entails unforeseen certain circumstances (Dubois and Smith 8-22). On the other hand, the constitution neither gives the Supreme Court power over the judicial review neither does it prevent it (Clayton and Giordano 115-275). In this case judicial review refers to the power of by the court to make a review on the constitutionality of a treaty or statute, or an administrative regulation for the constituency with ether the constitution itself, a statute or a treaty (Clayton and Giordano 115-275). Alexander Hamilton states that if the constitutional judges became the judges of their own supremacies, as well as that the construction put on them is conclusive on other departments; this could be a presumption meaning that it cannot be collected from specific provisions in the constitutional (Clayton and Giordano 115-275). It is not otherwise to be supposed, that the Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents (Clayton and Giordano 115-275). Those against the claim feel that the courts are an intermediate body between the legislature and the people in order to keep the former in the limits of its authorities (Clayton and Giordano 115-275). They further claim that the constitution is a fundamental law for the judges and it belongs to them and hence they have the right to verify its meaning. In addition, they can also verify the meaning of any Act that proceeds from the legislative body v. In case a variance exists between the legislative body and the constitution, then the one with more powers is preferred and in this case it is the constitution (Clayton and Giordano 115-275). It is apparent that the judicial system of the nation depends on the United States Supreme Court (Fenton and Goehlertpp 346-487). According to Alexander Hamilton, laws are only dead letters if they do not have the courts to define as well as expound on their meaning and operations (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). Just as is everything else in life the Supreme Court of the United States is not entirely perfect as indicated by some courts decisions which have in some occasions have been turned down (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). For instance, in the case between Plessy and Ferguson in 1986 when the court declared that the equal but separate facilities were constitutional. In 1954, the court declared that the equal but separate facilities for the blacks in the United States were not constitutional in the case between Brown and Board of Education. However, a final decision has to be attained and therefore the Supreme Court of the United States is very necessary and some power is required to make the final decision (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). In conclusion, while the debate still continues as to whether the Supreme Court of the United States is too powerful, the ultimate fact still remains (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). It is apparent that someone has to have the last word in the nation’s decisions especially when there are controversies regarding a certain issue (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). Evidently, before a case gets to the Supreme Court, it passes through the other courts and in one way or the other the Supreme Court has to decide on the case even though their ruling is not permanent as it could be determined that the decision was not correct (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). In the case between Plessy and Fergurson in 1986, the Supreme Court declared that as far as the as resources as well as facilities for the blacks in the United States were equal in quality, then it would mean that the institutions between the white as well as the black Americans remain separated. However the reality here was that the separate facilities were not in any way equal (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). As explained above the concept of equal and separate was found to be unconstitutional during the case of Brown and Board of education. According to studies, in any nation, there must be a more powerful body that is going to calm a situation when the problems are out of hand. In the United States, the Supreme Court has the responsibility to save the citizens in case the congress thinks of taking the citizens property unlawfully, when the president takes away the freedom of speech or when the state legislature takes away the freedom of the press for instance in the case of Louisiana under the dictatorship of Huey Long (Fenton and Goehlert 346-487). Besides, the Supreme Court can be seen as a chance for individuals to exercise their basic and constitutional rights through a fair and just trial. It does not discriminate against any person regardless of their race, crime committed, social or economic status and thus the idea of mystifying it is entirely baseless. Works Cited Abraham, H. J. Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (1st Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, 1992: 58- 112. Clayton, C. W. and Giordano, J. The Supreme Court and the Constitution, chapter 4 in Peele et al (ed) Developments in American Politics 3. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1998: 115-275. Dubois, M.L. and Smith, S.S. The U.S. Supreme Court. New York: Capstone Press, 2003: 8-22. Fenton S. M. and Goehlert, R. The U.S. Supreme Court: A bibliography. Michigan, Congressional Quarterly, 1990: 346-487. Fingeroth, D. and Martin, C. The U.S. Supreme Court. New York: Capstone Press, 2009: 10-26. Hartman, R. G., Mersky, R.M., Tate, C.L. Landmark Supreme Court cases: the most influential decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. London: Infobase Publishing, 2004: 225-330. McCloskey, R.G. The American Supreme Court 4th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005: 78-158. McKeever, R. The U.S Supreme Court: A Political and Legal Analysis. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997: 56-105. Urofsky, M. I. The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994: 590. Read More