SUPREME COURT

Responsibilities and Decisions of the Supreme Court

Responsibilities and Decisions of the Supreme Court

Introduction

The Supreme Court of the United States (often referred to the acronym SCOTUS) is the highest judicial authority in the country. The court is composed of the Chief Justice and eight associate justices. (Urofsky and Finkelman 2001) The Chief Justice has the duty to be the official spokesman of the Supreme Court decisions, but is generally regarded as a primus inter pares (first among equals).

Judicial Review

One of the primary purposes of SCOTUS is to assess the constitutionality of legislations passed by the U.S. government (Toobin 2007). This process is known as judicial review and legislation to be unconstitutional by the majority of justices discarded. This feature provides a system of checks and balances on the power of the executive and legislative branches of government.

Hearing Cases

The Supreme Court also required the hearing cases. Each year around 10,000 cases are filed with the Supreme Court (O'Brien, 2008), although only fractions has been heard before the Court. Cases usually come to the Supreme Court after being appealed in lower court, however, cases between an American state and the Federal Government are heard directly by the judges.

Issuing Opinion

SCOTUS judges are required to give the point of view on the cases they hear. An opinion document issued after every case that has been decided that the data from the grounds of justice for his decision in the case (McCloskey 2005).

Names of the Current Justices How Long Each Has Been Serving On the Supreme Court

Barbara Madsen is the current Chief Justice of the court. She took oath on January 11, 2010 to complete the unexpired term of Gerry Alexander. Madsen is only the second woman on the role of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Washington. Gerry Alexander was the 52nd Court chief justice (Greenberg 2007). He succeeded retiring Chief Justice Richard Guy in 2000. In November 2008 he was elected by the judges of the court for a third term as chief judge of the state. Alexander was the longest serving chief justice in state history and reaches the mandatory retirement age in 2011 and therefore only serve for three of the four-year term for which he was elected in 2008.

Why does the U.S. Constitution play an important part in the work of the United States Supreme Court

The Supreme Court and lower federal courts are protected from political interference. Judges are ...