- 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; or the Mayor of NYC and the NYC City Assembly)? Give an example to illustrate your argument.
The court system is better suited to protect the individuals of America thus to them not being influenced by public opinions. The Supreme Court has judges that are appointed by the President and will be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cases have shown to be proven that the public opinions does not interfere with constitutional actions. For ex. Brown v. Board proved that the voice of the citizens of America were ignored and silenced and did not interfere with the court system’s effective choices.
2. 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.)
Since the upper class has a hierarchy in terms of their wealth, they are able to use their wealth to pay for the necessary expenses found in campaigning. They are able to afford to spend months openly campaigning to be elected as a congressional member of the United States. These wealthy, upper class Americans will then choose to appoint Supreme Court Judges who have similar values as they do. For example, during the Trump administration, there were more republican representatives in congress, which created a majority that could vote and appoint a more conservative leaning Supreme Court judge, AKA Brett Kavanaugh. So in essence, yes, the supreme court is anti democrsatic. The people can’t make the appointments to the Supreme court, it is only the responsibility of Congress. By association, we elect the supreme court judges, but if the elected officials do not represent our ideals, it can be contradictory.
