9. THE JUDICIARY, PART 1: THE SUPREME

COURTI. CompositionII. Jurisdiction

III. ProcessIV. A few landmark cases

I. Composition-9 justices : the Chief Justice (J. Roberts) + 8 associate justices (S. Sotomayor, S.G. Breyer, S.A. Alito, E. Kagan, C. Thomas, A. Scalia, A. Kennedy, R.B. Ginsburg)

The Roberts Court, Oct. 2010

FDR’s “Court-packing” scheme Law clerks Edwin Meese, Reagan’s Attorney

General : “institutionalizing the Reagan revolution so it can’t be set aside no matter what happens in future presidential elections.”

II. Jurisdiction-original jurisdiction-appellate jurisdiction-writ of appeal-writ of certiorari (“to make perfectly sure”)

III. Process-on average: 5,000 cases a year, rules on about 200-“oral arguments”-“counsels”-majority opinion-dissenting opinion-concurring opinion-“strict constructionists” VS “judicial activists”

Alexis de Tocqueville: “Every political question in the US is ultimately a judicial one.”

Solicitor General

IV. A few landmark cases-Justice Powell 1979 “If the Congress chooses not to confront the president, it is not our task to do so.”-Marbury v. Madison (1803)-Fletcher v. Peck (1810), Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (1816)-McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): implied powers-Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

-Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): “separate but equal”

-Korematsu v. United States (1944) -Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

(1954) -Miranda v. Arizona (1966): “Miranda

rights” -Roe v. Wade (1973) -Bush v. Gore (2000) -Citizens United v. Federal Election

Commission (2010)

-National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012): “Obamacare”