In what ways is the court system better suited to protect the individual, than are the elected branches of government (such as Congress and the President; pr the Mayor of NYC and the NYC City Assembly)? Given an example to illustrate your argument.

The Supreme Court does not have opinions or influences from the public. As the Supreme Court are elected through vacancy on the Courts and the senate vote to confirm the individual. Executive and legislative branches play a big role in composition of the Supreme Court. A good example to showcase would be Brown v. Board of Education. With the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the outcome was the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional.

Think about how federal judges get to become judges – unlike presidents, mayors and members of Congress (and other legislatures), they are not elected, but rather appointed. Many Americans have thus called the federal courts system, and especially the Supreme Court, anti-democratic places in our government. Do you agree that the Supreme Court, for example, is an anti-democratic part of our government? What could be the reason for this way of choosing judges in federal courts? (Hint: think about our discussion of “Federalist #10” and which social class plays a leading role in our government system)

I do not believe that the Supreme Court is an anti democratic part of our government. I believe the reason as to why this is the way of choosing judges in federal courts is to ensure a independent judiciary and to protect judges from partisan pressures. I feel as we the public do often give a lot of option as to what outcomes do come from the courts, this is to ensure a non clouded judgement from political pressure when deciding cases.

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