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The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Warren and Burger was ‘activist’. Can the same be said of the Supreme Court under Chief Justices Rehnquist and Roberts?

The supreme court of the United States of America is, like supreme courts worldwide, the highest legal authority in the land. In article 3, section 1, the constitution of the USA states that the “judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court.” Article 3, section 1 also states that; “In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the SC shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned the sc shall have appellate jurisdiction.” The Court also has the power of constitutional and statutory interpretation. This is the power to take binding decisions. The sc gained the power to strike down unconstitutional bills, laws, statutes etc in the 1803 case of Marbury v Madison, where Hughes CJ stated: “We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.”

Litigation has increased dramatically since the 1960s and the 1980s. Many more cases are now appealed to the sc. However, the SC has the discretion to hear the cases it wants to hear, this is called certiorari. It hears only about 100 appeals per year, and only where a major point of law is at stake. Their decisions can only be overruled by a new decision of the Court, or by a constitutional amendment. Under the Burger court in the 70s, they abolished the death penalty in Furman v Georgia , than reinstated it with a new decision in Gregg v Georgia .

Justices are nominated to the court by the President, and ratified by the Senate after a confirmation process. This process involves a lengthy interview process before the Senate where one’s background is thoroughly scrutinised, and it is televised to the nation at large. There are eight Associate Justices. Congress set this...