Supreme court

About: Supreme court is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 41858 publications have been published within this topic receiving 306787 citations. The topic is also known as: court of last resort & highest court of appeal.

Political violence, order, and the legal construction of public space: power and the public forum doctrine

Abstract: This paper presents a historical geography of the legal construction of public space I argue that to understand the nature of the laws and court decisions that govern political activity in public space, it is necessary to examine that law not in isolation, but in relation to the social struggles over and in public space that forced legal decision making I begin by examining a recent Supreme Court decision concerning the rights of anti-abortion protestors and show how that decision was built on a long history of controlling dissent—particularly the dissent of unionizing and striking workers—rather than on a history of protecting the right to assembly and speech in public space The legal structure of public space derives first from imputing “violence” to those who dissent, and then seeking ways to control that dissent in the name of protecting property rights I argue, therefore, that it has only been by actively challenging—on the streets and in the courts-legal definitions of appropriate behavior in pu

The Democratic Constitution

Abstract: Constitutional law is clearly shaped by judicial actors. But who else contributes? Scholars in the past have recognized that the legislative branch plays a significant role in determining structural issues, such as separation of powers and federalism, but stopped there-claiming that only courts had the independence and expertise to safeguard individual and minority rights. In this readable and engaging narrative, the authors identify the nuts and bolts of the national dialogue and relate succinct examples of how elected officials and the general public often dominate the Supreme Court in defining the Constitution's meaning. Making use of case studies on race, privacy, federalism, war powers, speech, and religion, Devins and Fisher demonstrate how elected officials uphold individual rights in such areas as religious liberty and free speech as well as, and often better than, the courts. This fascinating debunking of judicial supremacy argues that nonjudicial contributions to constitutional interpretation make the Constitution more stable, more consistent with constitutional principles, and more protective of individual and minority rights.

The Supreme Court's Impact on the Law of Libel: Compliance by Lower Federal Courts

Abstract: EGAL SCHOLARS traditionally analogized the federal judiciary to a pyramid, with the Supreme Court at the apex, the courts of appeals in the middle, and the district courts at the base. The scholars focused their attention upon the Supreme Court, because they believed that this was where the authoritative decisions were made. For them, the study of public law revolved around analysis of Supreme Court decisions; it was essentially the study of constitutional law. The scholars did not focus much of their attention upon the lower courts, because they assumed that these courts obeyed the dictates of the Supreme Court. In short, the scholars subscribed to a hierarchical model to explain the Supreme Court's relationship with the lower courts. But beginning in the 1950s, and continuing through the 1960s and 1970s, revisionist scholars criticized this model. They said it reflected an "upper-court myth"' and therefore provided an unsatisfactory explanation of the Supreme Court's relationship with the lower courts. Jerome Frank wrote, "In legal mythology one of the most popular and most harmful myths is the upper-court myth, the myth that upper courts are the heart of courthouse government .... In considerable part, this belief arises from the fallacious notion that the legal rules, supervised by the upper courts, control decisions."2

The Solicitor General and the United States Supreme Court: Executive Branch Influence and Judicial Decisions

Abstract: 1. The Solicitor General and the Supreme Court 2. The Office of the Solicitor General: the finest law firm in the country 3. Explanations for Solicitor General success 4. Solicitor General influence and agenda setting 5. Solicitor General influence and merits outcomes 6. Solicitor General influence and briefs 7. Solicitor General influence and legal doctrine 8. Conclusion 9. Appendices.

The Effects of the Brown Decision on Black Educators.

Abstract: Since the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954,1 Blacks throughout the nation have watched the efforts to enforce the Court's mandate with mixed emotions. In the euphoria of the decision many believed that the long battle against segregation in the American public educational system, a practice that had cheated their children out of anything resembling a quality education, was at an end. They felt that the ruling handed down was the legal and moral thing for the Court to do. A small minority, aware of the commitments of some whites to racial segregation in the schools and other areas of American society, doubted whether the Court's ruling would be enforced and prophesized a long and bitter battle before the public schools were desegregated. As a group, very few of them gave thought to the effects the Court's decision would have on the black educators who taught the more than two million black students enrolled in segregated schools. Because of opposition to the enforcement of the decision, it was not until more than twenty years after the 1954 ruling that enough information was available to assess adequately its impact and consequences on black educators. Opposition to the enforcement of the Brown decision, especially in the South where most black students were enrolled in segregated schools, had been predicted by some Blacks as early as 1954; but very few at the time thought in terms of the implications of the decision on black educators. One of the more accurate analyses of the decision's implication on black educators, as well as black education, came from Charles S. Johnson, president of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In an essay written for the Journal of Negro Education, Summer, 1954,2 Johnson noted several ad-