One issue with the composition of the Supreme Court is the power that justices have. This is due to the prevalence of judicial activism which is when judicial rulings are suspected of being based on personal or political considerations rather than existing law. An example of this would be “Brown vs Board of Education” where judges ruled the segregation of schools to be “unconstitutional”. This could be seen to be activist because it is a case of liberal judges using their power to push forward reform in the area of civil rights on account of their political philosophy. This is a key issue because an activist court causes controversy through its ability to make decisions based on their political ideologies rather than the constitution.
Tiffany Robinson Writing Assignment 5 African American History The May 1896 Plessy V. Ferguson case is one of the landmark rulings in the history of American Jurisprudence. It was the culminating legal action of the post-Reconstruction period in American race relations, and made a firm statement that the Federal Government was not in the business of protecting African American. It opened the door to the era of virtual apartheid in the United States that lasted until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Supreme Court decision legitimized legal segregation in the nation. It provided that there could be separate public facilities, like schools and movie theaters as long as the facilities were near equal in equality.
How far did conditions for black Americans improve in the period 1945-56? Civil right was a major issue in America during 1945-56, especially in the Deep South. This was because conditions of African Americans didn’t improve much, it was mainly the start to any change that happened, with some limited progress. The first issue is ‘Jim crow’ laws; this was a law in the Southern states of America that introduced segregation between black and white people, by passing laws which denied them access to white facilities. Many of these facilities were, education, healthcare, transport, cinemas, restaurants and churches and even housing and estates were segregated.
Running head: MEN IN BLACK: HOW THE SUPREME COURT IS DESTROYING AMERICA Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America Dr. Rickert Criminal Justice 330 September 24, 2009 Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America From the dawn of America as an independent nation there have always been certain inalienable rights that our fore fathers established via the Constitution that should be clear and unambiguous. These rights are further enforced and often interpreted by Supreme Court Justices that are appointed by the President and affirmed by Congress. The position of Supreme Court Justice has been shrouded in mystery from the earliest Justices in history to present day.
Today’s society finds it necessary question to what range a jury can take the laws of America, change them, and make them their own. A jury can subject laws created through aggressive hindsight and discussion which leads to a dismissal of a case. This leaves the question as to if jury nullification weakens the rule of law that is in the American Constitution. The altercations of the laws are the result of the juries repeated use of jury nullification. If juries continue to use jury nullification, it will result in a weakened democratic system.
In the early 20th Century even though black people were no longer slaves they still remained second-class citizens. There were many factors that contributed to black people remaining second-class citizens under the white supremacy. For example the Jim Crow Laws. Between 1890 and 1910, southern states introduced legal segregation. This was achieved by passing local laws, which denied black Americans access to facilities used by white Americans.
They ruled that no state had the power to pass a law that went against the 14th amendment of the United States Constitution. The Civil war played a major role as well in segregation as we all well know. In ruling on a Louisiana Law it was a requirement that facilities for whites and African Americans on trains. In a Supreme Court case it was upheld for separate but equal rights. But in 1896 the decision the Court gave permission to segregated services.
The Supreme Court recognized that Judicial Review must also be cultivated into Judicial Sovereignty; the idea that a law may be held unconstitutional and binding on the other branches. The nation-state relationship served as the greatest obstacle for the Supreme Court in preserving the Union. In order to preserve the American Union the Supreme Court steered the cases, of the period, in order to create a consolidated nation-state. Preserving the American Union is reflected in all decisions of the cases the cases that fallow. In the case Marbury v. Madison the Supreme Court invalidated a law, passed by Congress, by declaring an act unconstitutional for the first time.
Many people have argued about the most important principals of the constitution, and many have expresses their viewpoints. I believe the three most important Principals of the constitution are Separation of powers, Checks and balances, and Popular Sovereignty. The first Principle we will look at is Separation of powers. What this principle means is that each different branch of the government has different responsibilities; this system is put into effect so to prevent one branch to become to powerful over the other. I believe that this principal of the Constitution is very important because without this put into effect the senate of the president could become much too powerful and overthrow the whole government and we would be in a dictatorship or we would be in a direct democracy or some other form of government.
While Northern segregation was generally de facto, there were patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades. Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated. These Jim Crow Laws followed the 1800–1866 Black Codes, which had previously restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans with no pretense of equality. State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education.