How did the Supreme Court gain the power of judicial review?
Judicial review was established in the decision of Marbury v. Madison.
Senator Bedfellow is concerned that a bill Congress is considering might be unconstitutional. He can ask the Supreme Court for its opinion to save Congress the time of passing an unconstitutional law.
Among the following examples which is the best example of stare decisis?
An attorney uses a previous state court ruling to argue his client's case.
Place the following actions in the correct sequence of occurrence, from first to last, in the process by which the Supreme Court accepts and reviews a case. Note that this list represents only a few of the overall sequence of steps in this process.
1. Petition for a writ of certiorari is filed(This is the first step for nearly all cases the Supreme Court might review.)
2. Law clerks evaluate the petetion (The "cert pool" makes it easier for justices to get a handle on the thousands of potential cases they could hear.)
3. The court grants a writ of certiorari(Once granted, a case with certiorari will appear before the Court.)
4. Oral arguments commence(Once a case is argued before the Supreme Court, the justices vote on their decision and issue an opinion.)
How many Supreme Court justices must agree to hear a case in order for it to receive a writ of certiorari?
4 (This is slightly less than a majority. It is also known as the "The Rule of Four," not to be confused with the excellent Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four.)
Which of the following characteristics are relevant for determining which federal court has jurisdiction over a case?
-location where the case was filed(Most federal cases start at the district court level, of which there are 94 in the country. Appeals from these courts go to one of 12 circuit courts of appeal, and which court is chosen is a matter of which state the case starts in.)
- subject matter of the case(Some federal courts have jurisdictions that are based on the subject matter of the case, rather than geography. For example, the U.S. Court of International Trade hears all trade and customs issues.)
- the parties in the case(The Supreme Court is the court of original jurisdiction for cases between two states, whereas a lower federal court will hear a case between an individual and the government.)
Properly order the steps in which a case goes through the federal court system.
-U.S. district court(This is the first step for the vast majority of federal cases.)
-U.S. court of appeals(The courts of appeals are organized geographically.)
-U.S. Supreme Court(The Supreme Court is the only court that gets to choose its own caseload.)
Match each Supreme Court document to its definition.
Amicus curiae brief
Opinion
Brief
Dissenting opinion
Amicus curiae brief-interest group-written brief that advises the Court on how to rule on a case(These kinds of briefs can help sway judicial opinion.)
Opinion-Document laying out the legal belief of the Supreme Court justices about the case in question(There is at least one majority opinion and sometimes one or more concurring opinions.)
Brief-attorney-written document arguing why the Court should agree with their client (Briefs are submitted by each side and read carefully by the justices.)
Dissenting Opinion-document laying out the legal belief of a minority of the Supreme Court justices about the case in question(There can be anywhere from zero to four dissenting opinions.)
Match the following terms to their definitions.
-defendant
-plaintiff
-criminal law
-civil law
Criminal law-Only the government can bring charges against an individual (In criminal law, the government brings a case against a specific party.)
Plaintiff-The party who brings the case before the court(In civil cases, the plaintiff is a civilian; in criminal law, the plaintiff is always the government.)
Civil law-This mainly involves torts and contract disputes between individuals, groups, and corporations(In civil cases, losers are not sent to jail, though they may need to pay monetary damages for their actions.)
Defendant-The party accused of breaking the law(In both criminal and civil cases, the defendant is the one accused of committing a crime or breaking the law.)
The number of amicus curiae briefs has (1) over time. When compared to regular cases, landmark cases have (2) briefs submitted.
1)increase (The number of briefs submitted has increased by over 1,000 percent.)
2)more (Although regular cases have quite a few briefs submitted, they pale in comparison to the number submitted for important Supreme Court cases. This is a sign of the increasing politicization of the legal process.)
Rank each court based on the number of cases it hears, from the court that hears the most cases to the court that hears the fewest.
state trial courts
federal district courts
state courts of appeals
state supreme courts
federal courts of appeals
U.S. Supreme Court
Which of the following hypothetical Supreme Court decisions are examples of judicial restraint, and which are examples of judicial activism?
1. Judicial Restraint:
-A conservative Court upholds campaign spending limits passed by congress and bases the ruling on constitutional language,
-A liberal court rules against someone claiming federal law discriminated against him, deeming the law is constitutional
2. Judicial Activism:
-A liberal court uses implied language from previous court decisions, despite from absence of explicit language in current statutes
,- A conservative court allows a state to exempt itself from EPA guidelines despite the supremacy clause.
Why does the Supreme Court rarely challenge the actions of executive agencies?
Doing so may provoke a fight with the president.
Executive agencies follow a formal rules-making process.
Choose all of the following that are limitations on the power of the federal courts.
Courts lack enforcement powers.
Judges must wait for cases to come to them.
Courts can only offer limited forms of relief.
The Supreme Court is an active participant in the legislative process, as seen by how they often rule acts of Congress unconstitutional.