4. Provide Security
Provide Predictability
Conflict Resolution
Reflect and Enforce
Conformity to Societal
Values
Distribute Benefits
and Allocate Costs of
Society
5.
6. SUBSTANTIVE LAW
Actions we can and cannot
legally perform under law
PROCEDURAL LAW
Establishes procedures
used to conduct the law
7. Behaviors threatening, harming, or
endangering safety of citizens
Crimes against State
Examples: Theft, Assault, Robbery, Murder
Jail time or community service
8. FELONIES
Murder, arson, burglary,
kidnapping
Jail time
MISDEMEANORS
Disorderly conduct,
trespassing, vandalism
Probation or community
service
10. Statutory Law:
Laws made by federal or state legislatures
Administrative Law:
Laws established by bureaucracy
11.
12. Article 3, Section 1:
“The judicial power of the
United States, shall be
vested in one Supreme
Court, and in such inferior
courts as Congress may
from time to time ordain
and establish.”
13. Judges keep jobs for “good behavior”
Establishes jurisdiction of Supreme Court
14. How many members will be on the
Supreme Court?
Will there be lower courts?
What actual powers will the judiciary have?
17. Trial Court
Cases heard for first time (original jurisdiction)
Court of Appeals
Hear appeals from trial courts
State Supreme Court
All decisions are final unless federal question
19. DISTRICT COURTS
94 trial courts in federal system
Original jurisdiction over
Constitutional questions
APPELLATE COURTS
12 Circuit Courts
Appellate jurisdiction;
Cases from lower courts
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26. Politics vs. Court Integrity
What would you have decided if you had been
a justice on the Marshall Court?
27. Establishment of Judicial Review
Power of courts to determine whether a law or
parts of laws are constitutional
Check on President and Congress
28.
29. Since the 1930s, the
Supreme Court has
been active on a
number of
important political
and social issues.
32. Nominee’s Ideological and Policy Preferences
Judicial Competence
Demographic Factors
Political Environment
33. Views hot-button issues could tip the Court
(and future decisions) in president’s favor
34. Nominating someone seen as generally
qualified can quicken confirmation process
George W. Bush nominating
White House Counsel Harriet
Miers for a vacancy on the
Supreme Court.
Miers eventually withdrew
her nomination.
36. What factors should a president consider?
Approval Rating
Senate Control
Legislative Goals
37.
38. ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
Straight to Supreme Court
Many types of cases
APPELLATE JURISDICTION
Heard via appeal from
lower court
Majority of cases
Writ of certiorari :
Court agrees to review a
case on appeal
Stare Decisis
(“let the decision stand”)
39. Four justices must agree hear a given case
(“Rule of Four”)
Who else has influence over the Court?
Solicitor General
Amicus curiae briefs
40.
41. Legal Model
Focus on legal principles
Judicial Restraint vs. Judicial Activism
Attitudinal Model
Focus on policy preferences
How we do know preferences? (Party of President)
Strategic Model
Focus on strategic considerations
Justices’ decision-making; political environment
42.
43. Majority Opinion
Role of Chief Justice in opinion assignment
Plurality Opinion
Absence of majority (4-3-2 decision)
Agree on ruling, but NOT on exact reasoning
Concurring Opinion
Agree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning
Dissenting Opinion
Disagree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning