Law Assignment: District School Issues in Legal Framework



Law Assignment: District School Issues in Legal Framework

Federal District Court Location

I live in the Southern District of Texas and the federal district court is located downtown.

Federal Circuit Court Of Appeals Location

The federal circuit court of appeals for the Southern District of Texas is located in Fifth Circuit, which is in New Orleans i.e. U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, FIFTH CIRCUIT (New Orleans, LA).

Federal and State Laws Conflict; Federal Law Supersedes State Law

According to the Supremacy clause (Article VI, Clause 2) of U.S. Constitution, federal law is the 'supreme law of the land', that is, as long as the federal law is valid (constitutional), state law is inferior to it (http://law2.umkc.edu). However, the Constitution has set up a split jurisdiction between state and federal sovereignty, which emphasis on Supremacy clause. This states that federal law is not always responsible for certain areas, i.e. state courts are solely reserved in certain areas of the states to regulate and any federal law in that area is unconstitutional. For example, education curriculum is establish by the states, where, the federal law can offer grants if any other criteria is met, but the final decision about the curriculum of schools is up to the states. So, in this way certain legal areas are reserved as the authority of state courts and education curriculum is one of them. However, Constitution cannot be violated by any state law, like a state cannot mandate any religion teachings in their schools, as it would clearly violate the first amendment to the constitution. Thus, states are allowed to rule but within certain areas and with some limitations as well. In case, the state law violates U.S. constitution, the federal law then supersedes state law. Further, the federal law and U.S. constitution can supersede state law when regulating the same activity (Vaillancourt & Rossen, 2012). This can be represented by a good example of Jim Crow laws in the 60's or laws that called for segregation of schools. These were the general state laws which then overturned by the Supreme Court. Thus, the idea of federal law supremacy and preemption refers to the concept that laws of state and local courts should not conflict with federal laws, since federal law is considered as the supreme law that can always supersedes the local or state law.

Evolution of Legal System since the Last 20 Years and Its Impact

Since the last 20 years, the legal system has evolved significantly and has seen major changes that have all been aimed at taking the nation at higher notch. In the U.S., several laws have been made by legislative bodies, where, the Constitution of United States provides authority to enact federal laws in certain areas, however, it does not delegate Congress all the power and reserved some for the states. Therefore, several laws have proposed by both, federal as well as state courts during last 20 years and most of them have significantly impacted on legal framework ...