6.10 - Court Power

​Court Power | 6.10

By John Christiansen

​President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the Hydrogen Bomb

1953

​Formula 1 driver and 7-time World Champion was born

1985

The Senate Trial in the impeachment of the U.S. President Bill Clinton begins

1999

​Today in History | Jan. 7th

​6.9 Assignment Retake

If you would like a retake for yesterday's class, please send Mr. C an Edio chat!

Overview

Learners can:

• apply the concepts of common law, judicial activism and restraint, double jeopardy, and dual prosecution

• evaluate what approaches to law make courts fairest and most effective

Vocabulary: double jeopardy, dual prosecution, civil law, common law, judicial activism, judicial restraint

Poll

What is your opinion?

Justices are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate?

• Good

• Bad

Poll

What is your opinion?

Justices can hold their positions for life.

• Good

• Bad

Poll

What is your opinion?

Court decisions are made by a simple majority (5 of 9 Justices)

• Good

• Bad

Essential Question:
How appropriate are the courts' powers for creating an effective and fair government?

Civil Law and Common Law

• Civil and Common Law are two different legal systems used in different countries.

• In Civil Law, courts interpret laws by examining written legal codes passed by legislature and applying them to the case.

• In Common Law, legal decisions are determined by decisions in similar previous cases. Common Law places a lot of importance on precedents.

• The United States' court system, including the Supreme Court, uses a system based on common law, which it inherited from Britain through the United States' colonial history.

Multiple Choice

Which line from the video best characterizes the United States' legal system as following common law?

• ". . .the judge would. . .look for a comparable case. . ."

• ". . .the court held the department store owner responsible."

• ". . .which belongs to the Anglo-American legal system."

• "The judge works deductively by applying the general rule to the concrete case."

Congress and the president tend to consider broad questions of public policy and their costs and benefits. In contrast, the courts consider specific cases with narrower questions. The courts can focus closely on the exact context of the individuals, groups, or issues affected by government decisions.

​
As cases are brought to the courts, court decisions shape the common law and thus shape policy.

​How the Courts Affect Policy

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. This law brought significant changes to the nation’s healthcare system with the goal of making healthcare more affordable.

The ACA was divisive. Its supporters emphasized how it made healthcare accessible to more people, and its opponents considered it government overreach.

​How the Courts Affect Policy

Judicial review enabled the law's critics to challenge the constitutionality of the ACA in court, hoping the Supreme Court would overturn it. However, by a narrow 5-4 margin, the Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the healthcare law's individual mandate as a constitutional extension of Congress’s power to tax.

​​2012

​The ACA continued to face challenges. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that, for religious reasons, some corporations could be exempt from the requirement that employers provide insurance coverage of contraceptives.

2014

However, the ACA also attained a victory in 2015. The court upheld the ability of the federal government to provide tax credits for people who bought their health insurance through a service the law created.

2015

Match

Match the action regarding the Affordable Care Act to the person or group

• Wrote the bill

• Signed the bill into law

• fine-tuned the law through decisions about whether certain parts are legal

• Brought concerns about the law to the government

Congress

the President

The Supreme Court

the public

• Congress

• the President

• The Supreme Court

• the public

• Two philosophies that influence how much a Justice attempts to influence policy are:

  • Judicial activism: the idea that Justices should influence policy to reflect modern issues. Relates to Loose Constructivism.

  • Judicial restraint: the idea that Justices should follow established precedents and not attempt to make major changes to policies. Relates to Concrete Constructivism.

​Judicial Activism and Restraint

Match

Match the following

• Plessy v. Ferguson

• Brown v. Board of Education

• Marbury v. Madison

Judicial Restraint

Judicial Activism

Judicial Activism

• Judicial Restraint

• Judicial Activism

• Judicial Activism

One of the roles of the court system is to put people on trial for committing crimes.

The Constitution provides multiple rules that protect the rights of people accused of crimes.

Double Jeopardy: Protection from being put on trial for the same instance of a crime more than once.

​Limits to the Judicial Branch: Double Jeopardy

​Double Jeopardy example

Despite protection from Double Jeopardy, a person can still be prosecuted at both State and Federal levels. This is dual or double prosecution.

For example, in 2015, Terance Gamble was sentenced to 1 year in prison for possessing a handgun illegally by an Alabama court. Gamble also violated a similar Federal law, and a federal court sentenced him an additional 3 years.

Gamble took this issue to the Supreme Court, where they ruled 7-2 that it did not violate the Constitution. Due to the US' system of federalism, they were not the same crime.

Dual Prosecution

Multiple Select

Imagine Liz kidnaps her nephew during a picnic in June, violating a state law. She goes to trial in a state court, but there is not enough evidence to convict her. She is found not guilty.

How could she be put on trial again?

SELECT ALL THAT APPLY

• 
  in a federal court, because kidnapping is a federal crime

• 
  in a state court, for a separate instance of kidnapping she commits in September

• in a state court, for illegal drug use after it is discovered that she was under the influence of drugs during the kidnapping

• 
  in a state court, for the same kidnapping after new evidence shows she did kidnap her nephew in June

• The Bill of Rights gives multiple other protections that come into play when a person is accused of a crime and faces a court trial including:

  • the right to a speedy trial

  • protections from self-incrimination

  • protection from unreasonable search and seizure

  • protection from cruel and unusual punishment

• Courts need to balance constitutional rights with the need to protect society
  

​Court Power and Individual Rights