The Supreme Court; A Lesson in Civics
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With the recent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court many people are under the impression all that is important to them will soon be burned down to the ground. Making wild claims about what the court will now do totally disregarding what the supreme court actually does and the constitutional limits placed upon the court and it’s power. In this post we will go over what the court does, what it doesn’t do and then finally why it was setup this way.
What the supreme court does is pretty small. Most think that it is the end all be all and the most powerful branch of the federal government. That simply isn’t the case; the supreme court and the rules regulating it were third after the legislature and executive branches for a reason, because the supreme court has the least amount of power. All the supreme court does is render opinions on the constitutionality of the cases brought before it. That is it, just an opinion.
What the supreme court doesn’t do is write new laws or strike laws from the books with it’s opinions. The supreme court doesn’t grant people rights nor does it take them away. The supreme court only renders opinions. It is very important too that it only does this. How most people react to the supreme court’s opinions is up to them, most will treat them like law but they are not law. A recent example of this is the case on sports gambling across state lines. The supreme court’s majority opinion was that the law was unconstitutional thus paving the way for states to allow sports gambling on a large scale. This opinion though did not erase the law from the books it is still there under Ch. 28 SS 3702.
Finally, we will go over why it was set up this way. The supreme court’s opinions don’t create or destroy law because the founders didn’t want the federal government to have the power to decide if the laws it passed were constitutional or not. It makes little sense for the federal government to ask itself if the laws it just passed are constitutional or not. The laws are not stricken from the books when a law is deemed unconstitutional either. This is again due to the lack of power the court has, which is a good thing. The laws can still be enforced to a small degree. A law enforcement agency can still disrupt a sports gambling operation, for example but no federal court will take the case. It is left this way so that the executive has the power to stop the enforcement of the laws that have been deemed unconstitutional. If the executive decides to enforce the laws but the people don’t want them too it is then left to the people to be the last check on power. Not talking grabbing rifles and such but rather with our vote. We are the last and final check on the entire system. It is up to us to make sure the checks and balances are kept in place.
Sadly though for the last two hundred years the supreme court and executive have gained more and more power while the legislature has lost it, mostly by giving it up and voting it away. What was supposed to be the strongest and most powerful branch in the federal government is now by far the weakest and our rights as a whole have suffered greatly for it.
This was not supposed to be an entire lesson on the supreme court but rather a very quick editorial. For more information on the supreme court we recommend looking up KrisAnne Hall where she goes over far more in detail about the supreme court and it’s powers.
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Keep that coffee warm for us.
LWS
