The Constitution is the set of guiding principles or laws all Supreme Court decisions must adhere to. It is also the document the Court applies when exercising judicial review of state or federal laws relevant to cases before the Court.
The Constitution is considered the Supreme Law of the land. The justices use the Constitution as a basis for analyzing legislation and cases that come before them to ensure the law or lower court decision conforms with the Constitution and ensures people's, institutions', state and federal rights are protected.
Not all Supreme Court decisions affect the Constitution; however, some decisions interpret the the document in a way that changes how amendments are understood or applied, compared to past decisions. This is called the "informal amendment process," meaning the change isn't made according to the instructions in Article V of the Constitution, and is temporary because it's subject to change by the current or future Court, but is nevertheless legally binding.
The Supreme Court uses the Bill of Rights in determining certain cases involving a violation of these rights. The Bill of Rights provides Americans with certain rights considered essential for a Democracy to properly function.
I don't know the answer>
The US Supreme Court uses "Selective Incorporation" to apply individual clauses within the Bill of Rights to the States via the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses.Some historians hold that the 14th Amendment required states to adhere to the Bill of Rights, in toto, while others claim the individual amendments were designed to be incorporated selectively.Total or Mechanical Incorporation (sometimes also called complete incorporation), the method championed by Justice Hugo Black, would have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply the entire Bill of Rights to the States at one time. The US Supreme Court has chosen to use "selective incorporation," however. The principle of selective incorporation upholds or rejects as inapplicable individual clauses within each Amendment when they are considered relevant to a case before the Court.For more information, see Related Questions, below.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary 1856 is the only valid dictionary used by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the United States each state has a supreme court. The federal system has the United States Supreme Court.The highest Federal court is the Supreme Court.In most States the highest court is also called a supreme court.In the federal court system, the final court of appeal is the US Supreme Court. In the state court systems, the final court is typically the state Supreme Court, although a few states (such as New York) have a different title for the head court in that state. Some cases may be appealed from the state Supreme Court to the US Supreme Court, depending on the substantive issues of law.The Supreme Court of the United States (aka US Supreme Court) is the highest appellate court in the federal system.Each US State has a supreme court or an equivalent high appellate court that goes by another name.In most cases, the high court is identified as a supreme court: for example, The Supreme Court of Ohio or the Florida Supreme Court. Some states use different naming conventions. New York refers to its trial courts as "supreme courts," and its top appellate court as the New York Court of Appeals. Texas has two courts that function at the supreme court level: The Supreme Court of Texas, which reviews juvenile and civil cases; and The Court of Criminal Appeals, which reviews criminal cases.
The US Constitution is the framework of government. It gives the government powers and the people rights. If any legislation violates the rights of the people or exceeds the powers of government, it can be struck down by the Supreme Court under the doctrine of judicial review.For more information, see Related Questions, below.
The Supreme Court gained the power to declare laws unconstitutional
individual rights
The Supreme Court used the Due Process Clause
In Griswold v. Connecticut, (1965) the US Supreme Court used substantive due process to protect a fundamental right to privacy not explicitly mentioned in the Bill of Rights, by extrapolating from concepts and rights protected in specific amendments.In the majority opinion Justice Douglas said that several of the rights guaranteed in the bill of rights combined to create a penumbra, which is the right to a zone of privacy in marriage.
The US Supreme Court has used the Fourteenth AmendmentDue Process and Equal Protection Clauses to apply significant portions of the Bill of Rights to the States; however, some parts of the first ten amendments remain unincorporated.
The "Bill of Rights" includes the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which provides that no person may be forced to be a witness against himself (in other words he has a right to remain silent when questioned). In the Miranda case, the Supreme Court ruled that, where a prisoner was not informed of his right to remain silent, the prosecution could not use his confession in court because that would be a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court uses the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses to selectively incorporate individual clauses in the Bill of Rights to the states in order to make federal legislation and US Supreme Court decisions enforceable against and within the states. Without the Fourteenth Amendment, Supreme Court decisions would not be enforceable against any body except the federal government. For more information, see Related Questions, below.
The case overturned a statute that prevented the use of contraceptives.
The Supreme Court does not use a jury. The Supreme Court is involved in interpretations of the US constitution. A jury would not help.
Historically, the Supreme Court has restricted women's rights in various areas, such as reproductive rights. For example, in the landmark case of Roe v. Wade (1973), the Court upheld a woman's right to have an abortion, but subsequent decisions have allowed various restrictions on this right. Additionally, the Court has also limited women's rights in areas such as employment discrimination, access to birth control, and equal pay.
The US Supreme Court uses "Selective Incorporation" to apply individual clauses within the Bill of Rights to the States via the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses.Some historians hold that the 14th Amendment required states to adhere to the Bill of Rights, in toto, while others claim the individual amendments were designed to be incorporated selectively.Total or Mechanical Incorporation (sometimes also called complete incorporation), the method championed by Justice Hugo Black, would have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply the entire Bill of Rights to the States at one time. The US Supreme Court has chosen to use "selective incorporation," however. The principle of selective incorporation upholds or rejects as inapplicable individual clauses within each Amendment when they are considered relevant to a case before the Court.For more information, see Related Questions, below.
The reasonableness standard The Supreme Court uses the reasonableness standard to allow laws that may appear (or actually be) facially discriminatory to stand because the law is reasonably related to a legitimate government interest.
Supreme Court Justices, Associate Justices of the Supreme Court -- although, the head of the courts are called:The US Supreme Court - Chief Justice of the United States (since 1866 when it was changed from Chief Justice of the Supreme Court).The various state Supreme Courts - Chief Justice of the State of (state name).But, not all states call their highest court the "Supreme Court." Some use "Court of Appeals," "Superior Court," "Supreme Judicial Court," and Texas and Oklahoma divide criminal and civil supreme courts by calling them (respectively) The Court of Criminal Appeals and The Supreme Court. Nomenclature will follow the trends in the individual states.