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Counter-majoritarian
The counter-majoritarian difficulty (sometimes ''counter-majoritarian dilemma'') is a perceived problem with judicial review of legislative (or popularly-created) laws. As the term suggests, some oppose or see a problem with the judicial branch's ability to invalidate, overrule, or countermand laws that reflect the will of the majority. The counter-majoritarian difficulty is often raised in discussions of United States constitutional law, particularly to discuss the powers of the three branches of the federal government of the United States. Origins Alexander Bickel, a law professor at Yale Law School, coined the term ''counter-majoritarian difficulty'' in his 1962 book, ''The Least Dangerous Branch''. He used the term to describe the argument that judicial review is illegitimate because it allows unelected judges to overrule the lawmaking of elected representatives and thus to undermine the will of the majority. The problem stems from the understanding that a democracy's legitimac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supreme Court Reform In The United States
Supreme Court of the United States Reform in the United States As the only unelected branch of the Federal government of the United States, American system of constitutional government, the Supreme Court of the United States is the subject of heavy contention in public debate and has been since before the Constitution of the United States, Constitution's drafting. The Supreme Court holds high importance in the American system as the final judicial check on both United States Congress, legislative and President of the United States, executive power. The debates around reform hinge on the counter-majoritarian difficulty, a feature of the American governmental system in which one branch (the judiciary) can overrule the will of the majority. The Court's composition and structure is extremely fluid in nature. As laid out in Article Three of the United States Constitution, Article III of the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution, the only clear explanation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Article Three Of The United States Constitution
Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. Under Article Three, the judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as lower courts created by Congress. Article Three empowers the courts to handle cases or controversies arising under federal law, as well as other enumerated areas. Article Three also defines treason. Section 1 of Article Three vests the judicial power of the United States in "one supreme Court", as well as "inferior courts" established by Congress. Section 1 authorizes the creation of inferior courts, but does not require it; the first inferior federal courts were established shortly after the ratification of the Constitution with the Judiciary Act of 1789. Section 1 also establishes that federal judges do not face term limits, and that an individual judge's salary may not be decreased. Article Three does not set the size of the Supreme Court or establish specific p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Separation Of Powers
The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state (polity), state power (usually Legislature#Legislation, law-making, adjudication, and Executive (government)#Function, execution) and requires these operations of government to be conceptually and institutionally distinguishable and articulated, thereby maintaining the integrity of each. To put this model into practice, government is divided into structurally independent branches to perform various functions (most often a legislature, a judiciary and an administration, sometimes known as the ). When each function is allocated strictly to one branch, a government is described as having a high degree of separation; whereas, when one person or branch plays a significant part in the exercise of more than one function, this represents a fusion of powers. History Antiquity Polybius (''Histories'', Book 6, 11–13) described the Roman Republic as a mixed government ruled by the Roman Senate, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judicial Activism
Judicial activism is a judicial philosophy holding that courts can and should go beyond the applicable law to consider broader societal implications of their decisions. It is sometimes used as an antonym of judicial restraint. The term usually implies that judges make rulings based on their own views rather than on precedent. The definition of judicial activism and the specific decisions that are activist are controversial political issues. The question of judicial activism is closely related to judicial interpretation, statutory interpretation, and separation of powers. Etymology Arthur Schlesinger Jr. introduced the term "judicial activism" in a January 1947 ''Fortune'' magazine article titled "The Supreme Court: 1947". The phrase has been controversial since its beginning. An article by Craig Green, "An Intellectual History of Judicial Activism," is critical of Schlesinger's use of the term; "Schlesinger's original introduction of judicial activism was doubly blurred: no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judicial Interpretation
Judicial interpretation is the way in which the judiciary construes the law, particularly constitutional documents, legislation and frequently used vocabulary. This is an important issue in some common law jurisdictions such as the United States, Australia and Canada, because the supreme courts of those nations can overturn laws made by their legislatures via a process called judicial review. For example, the United States Supreme Court has decided such topics as the legality of slavery as in the ''Dred Scott'' decision, and desegregation as in the '' Brown v Board of Education'' decision, and abortion rights as in the '' Roe v Wade'' decision. As a result, how justices interpret the constitution, and the ways in which they approach this task has a political aspect. Terms describing types of judicial interpretation can be ambiguous; for example, the term ''judicial conservatism'' can vary in meaning depending on what is trying to be "conserved". One can look at judicial int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Founding Fathers Of The United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the American Revolutionary War, War of Independence from Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, established the United States, United States of America, and crafted a Constitution of the United States, framework of government for the new nation. The Founding Fathers include those who wrote and signed the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States — all adopted in the colonial capital of Philadelphia — certain military personnel who fought in the American Revolutionary War, and others who greatly assisted in the nation's formation. Many of them were wealthy Slavery in the United States, slave-owners before and after the country's founding. The singl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Separation Of Church And State
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular state (with or without legally explicit church-state separation) and to disestablishment, the changing of an existing, formal relationship between the church and the state. The concept originated among early Baptists in America. In 1644, Roger Williams, a Baptist minister and founder of the Rhode Island, state of Rhode Island and the First Baptist Church in America, was the first public official to call for "a wall or hedge of separation" between "the wilderness of the world" and "the garden of the church." Although the concept is older, the exact phrase "separation of church and state" is derived from "wall of separation between Church & State," a term coined by Thomas Jefferson in his 1802 letter to members of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Establishment Clause Of The First Amendment
In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The ''Establishment Clause'' and the ''Free Exercise Clause'' together read: The Establishment Clause acts as a double security, prohibiting both control of the government by religion and political control of religion by the government. By it, the federal government of the United States and, by later extension, the governments of all U.S. states and U.S. territories, are prohibited from establishing or sponsoring religion. The clause was based on a number of precedents, including the Constitutions of Clarendon, the Bill of Rights 1689, and the first constitutions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. An initial draft by John Dickinson was prepared in conjunction with his drafting the Articles of Confederation. In 1789, then-congressman James Madison prepared another draft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creationism
Creationism is the faith, religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation, and is often Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific.#Gunn 2004, Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'the belief that the universe and living organisms originated from specific acts of divine creation.'" originally published in Creation/Evolution Journal , Volume 6 , No. 2 , Summer 1986. In its broadest sense, creationism includes various religious views,#Stewart 2010, Haarsma 2010, p. 168, "Some Christians, often called 'Young Earth creationists,' reject evolution in order to maintain a semi-literal interpretation of certain biblical passages. Other Christians, called 'progressive creationists,' accept the scientific evidence for some evolution over a long history of the earth, but also insist that God must have performed some miracles during that history to crea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intelligent Design
Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; "[ID] captured headlines for its bold attempt to rewrite the basic rules of science and its claim to have found indisputable evidence of a God-like being. Proponents, however, insisted it was 'not a religious-based idea, but instead an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins – one that challenges strictly materialistic views of evolution.' Although the intellectual roots of the design argument go back centuries, its contemporary incarnation dates from the 1980s" Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> Proponents claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." * * ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kitzmiller V
Kitzmiller may refer to: People * John Kitzmiller (1913–1965), African-American actor * Johnny Kitzmiller (1904–1986), American football player and member of the College Football Hall of Fame * Karen B. Kitzmiller (1947-2002), American politician * Warren Kitzmiller (1943-2022), American politician See also * '' Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District'', 2005 United States court case * Kitzmiller, Maryland, a town in the United States {{disambig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tyranny Of The Majority
Tyranny of the majority refers to a situation in majority rule where the preferences and interests of the majority dominate the political landscape, potentially sidelining or repressing minority groups and using majority rule to take non-democratic actions. This idea has been discussed by various thinkers, including John Stuart Mill in ''On Liberty'' and Alexis de Tocqueville in ''Democracy in America''. To reduce the risk of majority tyranny, modern democracies frequently have countermajoritarian institutions that restrict the ability of majorities to repress minorities and stymie political competition. In the context of a nation, Constitution, constitutional limits on the powers of a legislative body such as a bill of rights or Supermajority, supermajority clause have been used. Separation of powers or judicial independence may also be implemented.A Przeworski, JM Maravall, I NetLibrary Democracy and the Rule of Law' (2003) p. 223 In Social choice theory, social choice, a tyran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
