Aughenbaugh Poli 314 Constitutional Law VCU set 1

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122 Terms

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Appellate Jurisdiction

The authority of a court to review decisions made by lower courts.

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Judiciary Act of 1789

The act established a three part judiciary made up of district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme Court. It outlined the structure and jurisdiction of each branch.

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Congress established a limited jurisdiction for the district and circuit courts, gave the Supreme Court the original jurisdiction provided for in the Constitution, and granted the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction in cases from the Federal circuit courts and from the state courts where those courts rulings had rejected Federal claims.

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Gave the Supreme Court original jurisdiction in cases where a writ of mandamus was alleged.

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Required Justices of the SCOTUS to hold court twice a year in the company of local district court judges, in a circuit court to hear appeals from the federal district courts. Justice's primarily resided in their Circuits rather than in D.C..

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Riding the Circuit

Traveling to hold court in a Justice's assigned region of the country.

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Came about from the requirements of the Judiciary Act of 1789

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Marbury v. Madison

  1. Case facts: The Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Supreme Court original jurisdiction in cases where a writ of mandamus was alleged. The Judiciary Act of 1801 contained the Federalist Party's court packing effort. President Jefferson ordered his Secretary of State Madison to not deliver outstanding justice of peace commissions. Marbury asked the Court, per the Judiciary Act of 1789, to issue a writ of mandamus forcing Madison to deliver his commission.

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  1. Questions for the Court: a. Does Marbury have a right to the justice of the peace commission? b. If this right has been violated, do the laws give him a remedy? c. Is the law giving him a remedy constitutional?

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  1. Holding: a. yes; b. yes; c. no (Marshall)

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  1. Reasoning: a. Marbury has a right to the commission, since the commission was signed by president & sealed by the secretary of state per the Act of 1801; b. There was a legal remedy, as Madison's responsibilities per the Act of 1801 was to deliver sealed commissions

this was not discretionary and not open to change by the president (1st act of JR by the Court); c. Is the law giving him a remedy constitutional? No, as... c (1.) Constitution, save a few specific instances, does not give the Court original jurisdiction. This means that the Judiciary Act of 1789, which gave the Court original jurisdiction to hear writs of mandamus does not comply with the Constitution; c (2.) Court using Judicial Review deemed the law unconstitutional c (3.) Bottom

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  1. No concurrences or dissents

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  1. General principles: a. Court has authority of judicial revie

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Two justifications that Marshall claims are the underpinnings of Judicial Review

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Difference between Legal Responsibility and Discretionary Authority for Executive Branch Officials

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Judiciary Act of 1801

The outgoing Federalists in the Congress and in the White House (John Adams) created a large range of new Federal Judgeship positions, and they nominated Federalists to fill them.

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This was court packing

but it instead created new, lower Federal Courts, and packed them, rather than simply packing the Supreme Court.

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Commission

Essentially a job offer

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Sent out by the President's Secretary of State

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In Marbury v. Madison, there were still a few commissions that had already been signed and sealed by outgoing President Adams during his attempts to court pack

with the powers given to him by the Judiciary Act of 1801

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When Jefferson assumed office after Adams, he ordered Madison not to deliver the remaining commissions.

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Justice of the Peace

Essentially head of the court system around the times of the late 1700's and early 1800's.

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Writ of Mandamus

A legal request that an individual makes to a court that would have the court force the government to do its job.

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The reason why Marbury submitted this Writ to the United States Supreme Court was because the Judiciary Act of 1789 said that, "Writs of Mandamus should be served directly to the Supreme Court."

This was because the Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Supreme Court Original Jurisdiction.

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Thomas Jefferson's response to Marbury

A Presidential response to the Court exercising Judicial Review.

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Thomas Jefferson declared in letters that the decision in Marbury v. Madison and the concept of judicial review were unconstitutional and not actually law.

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Andrew Jackson's response to Worcester v. GA

A Presidential response to the Court exercising Judicial Review.

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Andrew Jackson declined to enforce the Supreme Court's decision to protect the Native Americans from being removed from their land, thus allowing states to enact further legislation damaging to tribes living in Georgia. The U.S. government began forcing the Cherokee off of their land.

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Led to the Trail of Tears.

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The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

Created in response to laws aimed at silencing partisan criticism of the John Adam's administration' pro

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Enabled states to stand in

between the Federal Government and the state's people.

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Asserted that states have the power of nullification.

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Nullification

A state's refusal to recognize an act of the federal government that it considers unconstitutional.

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Came about through The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.

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Judicial Review

Allows the court to determine the constitutionality of laws.

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Chief Justice Marshall claimed it in Marbury and Hamilton defended it in the Federalist Papers.

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Not in Constitution.

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Initially, the Court often tempered its language in using Judicial Review to not offend the other branches and the states, but throughout the 1900s, the Court began to assert it was the final word on the meaning of the Constitution.

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What O'Brien and many others scholars ignore is how often the federal courts overturn numerous executive branch actions (regulations, adjudicative decisions, etc.), that are based in part or in whole on the legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.

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Use of Judicial Review often leads to criticisms that the SCOTUS is being activist

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Franklin D. Roosevelt's reaction to the SCOTUS exercising Judicial Review

SCOTUS shot down many of FDR's progressive programs.

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FDR proposed judicial reforms in response

court packing in particular.

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Senate Judiciary Committee of the Congress rejected FDR's proposal.

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Led to the "Switch in time that saved nine".

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"Switch in time that saved nine"

The decision made during West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish that saved nine justices and prevented the addition of 6 new justices to the court during FDR's New Deal.

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Richard Nixon's reaction to the SCOTUS exercising Judicial Review

Attacked the "liberal jurisprudence" of the Warren Court

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Promised to only appoint Strict Constructionists to the SCOTUS's bench if he was to be elected President.

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Strict Constructionist

A person who interprets the Constitution in a way that allows the federal government to take only those actions the Constitution specifically says it can take.

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They hold that constitutional interpretation should be confined to the "four corners" of a document

the literal language of the text of the Constitution.

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Dred Scott v. Sanford

Supreme Court case that decided the U.S. Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process

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One of the worst SCOTUS rulings in U.S. history.

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What Presidents, states, and Congress object to, more than losing a specific case is...

Note: today a number of SCOTUS Justices have complained that the other branches of the federal government have stopped doing any constitutional interpretation and expect the SCOTUS to clean up their messes.

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Problem with Judicial Review

Whether it is appropriate for the Court, through Judicial Review, to have the final word, what is often ignored is how the Court relies upon other branches and states to implement its decisions.

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Examples:

  1. Dred Scott (1857)

  2. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

  3. U.S. v. Nixon (1974)

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Abraham Lincoln's reaction to the SCOTUS exercising Judicial Review

Denounced the SCOTUS's ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford.

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Did not want Dred Scott v. Sandford to set a precedent for similar cases.

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Social and political forces have often shaped the courts' usage of Judicial Review

1789

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1865

1937: dealing with the effects of the Industrial Revolution, including the balancing of regulatory & business interests.

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1937

Today: After the Court gave its blessings to Congress regulating business/industry via Congress's commerce clause authority, it began to closely scrutinize laws that infringed on "discrete and insular minorities".

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Criticisms that the SCOTUS is being activist

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Brown v. Board of Education

Example of Judicial Supremacy.

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Ordered the desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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The justices cited Marbury v. Madison to have given them supreme exposition (interpretation) of the law of the land. All state legislator, executive, and judicial officials are solubly committed to support the Constitution. And the Constitution pertains to Brown v. Board of Education via the 14th Amendment

states must uphold this law of the land.

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U.S. v. Nixon

Court ruled that Nixon cannot sue the Legislator for "improperly" proceeding in his impeachment as the Legislature has the sole responsibility of determining how to run an impeachment trial.

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Nixon's attempted law suit was determine to be non

justiciable.

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Justiciable

appropriate for court assessment

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Nonjusticiable

inappropriate for decision by a court

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Jurisdiction

An area of authority or control; the right to administer justice

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Jurisprudence

The study of law

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Rosenberg's Hollow Hope

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Counter

Majoritarian Problem

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The Federalist response to the Counter

Majoritarian Problem

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Alexander Hamilton The Federalist No. 78

Claimed that the Federal Court is and always will be the weakest branch of government as they have the least capacity to annoy or injure the political rights of the Constitution.

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The Federal Courts has neither the power of the sword or the purse.

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Litigation

The process of taking legal action.

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Law suit.

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Plain Meaning Rule

Based on English Common Law.

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A rule of interpretation which states that words in a contract should be given their ordinary meaning.

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Mostly employed by courts through late 1800s and early 1900s

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Legal Realism

Emerged around 1920's

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A school of legal thought that holds that the law is only one factor to be considered when deciding cases and that social and economic circumstances should also be taken into account.

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The chief legal debate in the country up until the late 1800's

Between the Jeffersonian

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Centered on disagreements over fundamental principles of constitutional politics.

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Their struggle was over rival political philosophies and interpretations of the political system created by the Constitution.

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How the constitution and law should be interpreted began to change in late 1800s.

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Brandeis Brief

Filed by attorney Louis D. Brandeis in the Supreme Court case of Muller vs. Oregon, this brief presented only two pages of legal precedents, but contained 115 pages of sociological evidence on the negative effects of long workdays on women's health and thus on women as mothers. The brief expanded the definition of legal evidence.

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Muller v. Oregon

Case that upheld protective legislation on the grounds of women's supposed physical weakness.

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Upheld the law stating women could only work for 10 hours per day.

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Ruled this way because of the Brandeis Brief.

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Orignial jurisdiction

Court hears and decides a case for the first time.

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Oliver Wendell Holmes

Along with John Marshall, he is often considered considered one of the greatest justices in Supreme Court history. His opinions and famous dissents in favor of individual liberties are still frequently quoted today. He argued that current necessity rather than precedent should determine the rules by which people are governed; that experience, not logic, should be the basis of law.

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Judges do make law based on their experiences.

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Roscoe Pound

Founded Sociological Jurisprudence.

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Judges should become "social engineers".

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Sociological Jurisprudence

The law can and should change to meet new developments in society.

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Founded by Roscoe Pound

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Legal Realism Movement

Emerged 1920s

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Not only do judges make law, they should do so for the betterment of society.

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How Harvard and Yale law school graduates took Legal Realism lessons and applied to the federal government during the 1930s & 40s

Implemented its concepts during the FDR Presidency.

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New Deal