The Constitution of the US says that the Supreme Court has legal power
law
Description
Part I:
Your text states that the judiciary has the power to interpret, apply or
invalidate a law as it pertains to rights expressly created under the state or
national constitution.
(1) Does the Constitution explicitly provide for that authority? If so, where in the
Constitution is it so provided? If not, why does the Supreme Court have the power
to strike down statutes passed by Congress as unconstitutional? Should it have that
power? Why or why not? (this is of particular interest these days in the early part
of the Trump administration!)
Part II:
In 1967, in the case of Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) the Supreme
Court ruled unconstitutional a Virginia statute that prohibited whites and
African-Americans from marrying based on due process and equal protection
grounds, stating, “Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man,
fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental
freedom on so unsupportable a basis as racial classifications embodied in
these statutes, classifications so directly subversive to the principle of equality
at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s
citizens of liberty without due process of law”.
In 2013, in the case of Hollingsworth, et al. v. Perry, et al. the Supreme Court
avoided ruling on the substantive issue of whether States can prohibit same-
sex couples from marrying; ruling instead that the petitioners in the case had
no right (no standing) to contest the ruling of the lower court. The ruling
essentially means that for the time being individual states can decide on their
own the question of same-sex marriage. The opinion can be found by going
towww.supremecourtus.gov (link is located in "Course Content") and clicking
on "Opinions" and then on "More". Click on "Opinions of the Court" and
then click on “2012 Slip Opinions” and look for Hollingsworth, et al. v. Perry,
(2) Do you believe each State should be able to decide whether same-sex couples
can marry within their respective States or do you believe the issue is one for the
Supreme Court to decide, similar to the Loving case cited above? Why or why not?
Do you believe denying same-sex couples the ability to marry violates their
constitutional rights of due process and equal protection?
