The Court`s workload is almost exclusively appealable, and the Court`s decisions cannot be challenged by any authority, since it is the final judicial arbiter in the United States on matters of federal law. However, the court may hear appeals from the highest state courts or federal courts of appeal. The Court also has original jurisdiction over limited types of cases, including those involving ambassadors and other diplomats, as well as inter-state cases. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the land and the only part of the federal judiciary explicitly required by the Constitution. The term “expert opinion” as used here refers to various types of judicial writing. In almost all cases, the Supreme Court does not rule on appeals under the law; Instead, the parties must apply to the Court for a certiorari. It is the custom and practice of the court to “issue a certificate” when four of the nine judges decide to hear the case. Of the approximately 7,500 applications for certiorari filed each year, the court generally issues fewer than 150 certificates. These are, as a general rule, cases which the Court considers sufficiently important to require their consideration; A common example is where two or more federal courts of appeal have ruled differently on the same question of federal law. Judges can also issue opinions on court orders, for example to waive or accept a refusal of certiorari.
Like other court watchers, we were surprised. After all, Roberts was the deciding vote in many of these cases, and he is hardly a liberal. To be honest, it`s surprising that we know so little. The Court is on an equal footing with Congress and the Presidency and decides cases with high public impact. Topics range from civil rights to presidential powers and reproductive freedoms. Court decisions range from everything we care about, from admitting students here to Harvard to the question of whether and how states like Massachusetts can combat climate change. If the court grants certiorari, the judges accept the pleadings of the parties to the case, as well as those of the amicus curiae or “friends of the court.” This can include industry trade groups, academics, or even the U.S. government itself. Before rendering a judgment, the Supreme Court usually hears oral arguments in which the various parties to the application present their arguments and the judges ask them questions.
When the case involves the federal government, the U.S. Attorney General makes arguments on behalf of the United States. The judges then hold private lectures, make their decision, and (often after a period of several months) deliver the court`s opinion as well as any dissenting arguments that may have been written. Essentially, the court decides whether laws and government policies are constitutional and describes the scope and limits of government. With that in mind, we see our study, which asks people what they think about the issues that the court will decide, to be essential. Does the court agree with public opinion? If not, how and to what extent does it differ? Will that change over the next few years as new judges enter the bench? Our study will allow people to understand these kinds of issues by allowing explicit comparisons between public opinion and court decisions. Q: Why is it important to know what the public thinks about the issues before the U.S. Supreme Court? Should the Supreme Court not be independent of what the public thinks? Although the function of judicial review is not expressly provided for in the Constitution, it was provided for prior to the adoption of this document. Before 1789, state courts had already repealed legislative acts that contradicted state constitutions.
Moreover, many of the Founding Fathers expected the Supreme Court to assume this role with respect to the Constitution; Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, for example, had emphasized the importance of judicial review in the Federalist Papers urging the adoption of the Constitution. In recent decades, the Supreme Court has lost its ability to base its legitimacy solely on its legal expertise, but it has gained public support as a new source for legitimizing its authority. Due to the growing public awareness that legal expertise does not provide clear answers to the Court, the Court has partly lost expertise as a source of legitimacy. The idea that judges decide important cases according to their political preferences has become common sense and has undermined the Court`s image as an expert on public opinion. On the other hand, the invention of scientific opinion polls and their current central importance in the public consciousness give the Court a new source of legitimacy. Thanks to opinion polls measuring public support for the Court, it now has, for the first time in its history, an independent and public indicator demonstrating its public support. The monopoly that elected institutions had on the right to public office was broken. As a result of these changes, as well as the lessons the Court learned from the Lochner decision and the Brown decision, there has been a significant shift in the political balance of power and, subsequently, in the Rehnquist Court`s understanding of its own sources of legitimacy. A Pew Research Center national survey of 1,501 adults conducted March 13-17 found that 52 percent of them have a positive opinion of the court, while 31 percent viewed it negatively. Those assessments have changed only marginally since last July, shortly after the court decided to uphold most of the affordable care law.
