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Fair and Impartial Courts

Fair and Impartial Courts. And Why They Matter Presented by Margaret E. Fisher. Objectives. Identify separation of powers Define fair and impartial courts Identify pressures against fair and impartial courts Analyze which branch has final word on the Constitution. James Madison.

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Fair and Impartial Courts

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  1. Fair and Impartial Courts And Why They Matter Presented by Margaret E. Fisher

  2. Objectives • Identify separation of powers • Define fair and impartial courts • Identify pressures against fair and impartial courts • Analyze which branch has final word on the Constitution

  3. James Madison The combination of three essential government functions in one body is “the very definition of tyranny.” The Federalist No. 47

  4. Three essential government functions • Legislature sets policy for the future. It works require predictive, value-laden judgments. • Executive implements these policies by making practical, detailed choices of how to enforce these policies. • Judiciary makes a judgment whether specific behavior violates these policies by evaluating past events. It may also declare the rights of the parties in conflict.

  5. Fair and Impartial Courts – What are they? • Define for five minutes with a partner.

  6. Fair and Impartial Courts Judges decide cases: • without bias or prejudice, • relying only on the facts and the law.

  7. Protected From: • Political pressure • Legislative pressure • Special interest pressure • Media pressure • Public pressure • Financial pressure • Personal pressure. Share examples.

  8. “So-called Judge” "I took a two-thirds pay cut to get death threats once a month, but I'm benefiting society." 2008 Political Pressure

  9. Legislature Pressure

  10. Special Interest Pressure

  11. National headlines for talk shows and online commenters, calling Judge “incompetent” and “vermin.” Media Pressure

  12. Tremendous outcry from students/parents & a PR campaign waged in hopes of a reconsideration of the court's decision or legislative action. Legislative action taken and upheld by King Co. Court, 2/2017. Public Pressure

  13. Financial Pressure

  14. Personal pressure • Threats, injury and death • Family members’ stress • Lack of support in community • Isolation Judge George H. Boldt

  15. Who gets to say whether laws are constitutional? • Why do the courts get to decide whether laws are constitutional? • Can State legislatures give themselves this power?

  16. John Adams William Marbury James Madison

  17. The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the Constitution is written. To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?…It is a proposition too plain to be contested, that the Constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it….A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law…. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. CJ John Marshall

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