The Supreme Court System Essays - Conservatism In The United States

The Supreme Court System The Supreme Court System The justices determine which cases to take. They never explain the reason for their choices. Whether or not a case is accepted strikes me as a rather subjective decision, made up in part of intuition and in part of legal judgment, Rehnquist wrote in The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It Is, his 1987 book about the court. Important factors, he said, are whether the legal question has been decided differently by two lower courts and needs resolution by the high court, whether a lower-court decision conflicts with an existing Supreme Court ruling and whether the issue could have significance beyond the two parties in the case. For example, the justices likely accepted the sexual-harassment case brought by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, against President Clinton because it will test the important question of whether a president should have to defend himself against a lawsuit while in office. They also agreed for the term that began Monday to review a case challenging the constitutionality of a federal handgun-registration law, no doubt in part because lower courts are divided about whether the law, which requires sheriffs to check a purchaser's background, unconstitutionally burdens local officials. But the justices do not automatically take on all cases posing significant societal dilemmas. Last June, for example, they refused to hear one on the legality of college affirmative action programs. The case did not garner the four votes needed to accept a petition for review and to schedule oral arguments on it. Before those votes are cast in the closed-door session, however, a case must pass muster with several of the youngest, least experienced lawyers in America -- the 36 law clerks who serve the nine individual justices and who, in effect, are their staff for a term. These clerks, most often four to a justice, usually are recent law school graduates and typically the cream of their Ivy League schools. It is the clerks who first winnow the 7,000 or so annual petitions, settling on the select few that they believe the justices themselves should consider. There is no set number or quota for each week's conference. With the clerks' memos in hand and in the closed conference room, the justices summarily reject most of the appeals. They discuss petitions flagged by one or more of the justices. Then, according to justices' public accounts over the years, they vote aloud, one at a time by seniority but starting with the chief justice. While the chief justice leads the meeting, the most junior justice, now Stephen G. Breyer makes handwritten notes that will be passed to a clerk for public announcement of disposition of petitions. Rehnquist is known for running a brisk session. Bam! Bam! Bam! one associate justice said in describing the group's swift disposition of cases. Among the richest sources of inside information about the court are the papers of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall (1967-1991). They describe negotiations as cases moved through the process. They show, for example, that only by the bare minimum of four votes did the justices accept a case that eventually yielded an important 1990 ruling on religious freedom. As is his responsibility by tradition, Chief Justice Rehnquist laid out the facts of the case and lower court rulings on it: Two Native Americans had been fired from their jobs at a private drug rehabilitation center after ingesting peyote, a cactus that contains the hallucinogen mescaline, as part of an ancient Indian religious ceremony. The men were denied unemployment compensation by the state of Oregon because officials said they were fired for illegal conduct. State drug law prohibited use of peyote. The men were never charged with a crime, and they sued the state, contending that denial of unemployment compensation violated their right to religious freedom. The Oregon Supreme Court sided with them, ruling that the anti-drug statute should not outlaw religious use of peyote. The state appealed to the Supreme Court. When the case first arrived here in 1987, Rehnquist voted to hear it. Next in seniority and entitled to the second vote was William J. Brennan Jr., who apparently was concerned that the high court might overturn the

Social Class Essay Topics to Make a Difference

Social Class Essay Topics to Make a DifferenceIf you are serious about having your social class essay topics make a difference, then you should give a lot of thought to what types of questions you need to answer. For example, you can have short but catchy essays that look like they are asking big questions. However, most of the time you are asking very personal questions and you do not want to make people feel uncomfortable when they ask you those questions.One thing you do not want to do is go too far in a topic where you try to appear as if you are coming out with a lot of all of the best things in life. People don't like that.If you have written a good topic that is based on your individual experiences, then you want to stay away from topics where you try to come out and sound overly intelligent. People want to know that you are intelligent. Instead, keep it simple.You will want to have your class essay topics contain some sort of theme. Make sure that the theme is easy to remembe r. If your theme is the unique perspectives and experiences of a few special people in your life, then make sure that the theme is easily remembered.You may want to put together some great things you have done with these people, for example, you might have volunteered at a charity event for a few years or you may have done some volunteer work at a school for kids. However, be sure to write about more than just the things you have done for other people.You will find that class essay topics will be more effective when you use a little bit of humor and absurdity to keep things light. If you are too serious about the topic, your readers will not take you seriously. You want to make sure that your essay topics are both friendly and fun, but also very honest and not superficial. As you can see, you can create basic topics for you to write about, but you need to make sure that you do so in a way that makes sense. Most of the time students are too serious about their topic and therefore the ir topic is less likely to be remembered and be a good choice.