BR 3-31-14

     Racism is definitely still an issue today. The main difference today is that racism goes in all directions, rather than the typical white against black persecution. Today black people are racist towards white people, white people are racist towards black people, Hispanics are racist towards Asians, and the list goes on. With that being said, occurrences of racism are far less common in this day and age than they were a few years ago. Racism has been on a steady decline for years now.

BR 3-27-14

     Supreme court justices should serve for life, because we should have a constant interpretation of the constitution for longer than a few years. The cases will be consistent, but also changing as society develops as the justices gradually change. Serving for life also practically eliminates the competition between political parties. The ideologies of the parties could pose a bias for either party if the competition became too great, and court case findings would differ between arguing political parties.

BR 3-24-14

     A outbreak of Ebola has occurred in Guinea. It is estimated that at least 59 deaths have a occurred as a result of this disease. This disease is marked by a viral hemorrhagic fever. An outbreak like this is of great concern in a nation like Guinea, where the medical practices and technology are underdeveloped compared to those of other nations. Proper sanitary action is required to prevent further spreading of this deadly disease.

Recent Supreme Court Cases

1. Religion:
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

In 1999, Cheryl Perich started teaching at Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Michigan. While Perich led students in prayer and taught a religion class several days a week, her job primarily consisted of teaching grade school art, science, social studies and music. In 2004, Perich left on disability and was diagnosed with narcolepsy. In 2005, after being cleared by her doctors to go back to work, the school told her that they already hired someone else. Perich then threatened to file suit, so the school promptly fired her for "insubordination and disruptive behavior."

The court unanimously agreed with a prior decision that "the Establishment Clause prevents the Government from appointing ministers, and the Free Exercise Clause prevents it from interfering with the freedom of religious groups to select their own."


2. Minority:
Ricci v. DeStefano

This case was in regards to the racially discriminatory employment practices by New Haven, Connecticut's fire department. Eighteen of the city's firefighters sued them on the basis of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Most of these firefighters were white with one hispanic. They sued because they were all denied promotions to management positions, even though they all passed the management exams. Furthermore, the positions were given to black firefighters who apparently did not meet the requirements of the exam.

The Supreme Court heard the case. The Court held 5–4 that New Haven's decision to ignore the test results violated Title VII because the city did not have a "strong basis in evidence."


3. School System:
Fisher v. University of Texas

A girl was denied admission into the University of Texas. She argued that it was on the basis of her skin color. Surprisingly enough, she was actually white, which totally goes against the grain of most previous racial discrimination. She put the blame of this on the basis of her black friend's acceptance into UT with the same or lower academic credentials.

The court ruled in favor of the girl and forced the university to remove race questions from their application. But also, the school had the right to accept a certain number of black students.

     

Notes 3-20-14

Structure and jurisdiction of courts.

Inferior courts
-function beneath the supreme court

District courts
-94 district courts
-12 judicial districts

Secret Courts
-little known about multi-judge panel
-FISA meet in secret and are entitled to secret search warrants
-allow them to monitor terrorist threats.
-Alien Terrorist Remove court: decide whether those identified as alien terrorists by the us attorney general should be expelled form the country.

Jurisdiction
-do not hear cases within original jurisdiction of the supreme court
-hear both criminal and civil cases
-us is always prosecutor in criminal cases
-in a civil case the us can either be the plaintiff or the defendant

Court of appeals
-where the case goes after district court
-each district has 12 court of appeals and one court for federal circuit
-each court has 6-28 judges and one supreme court justice

Court of international trade
-federal trial court only tries civil cases that arise out of the nation's customs and other trade related laws
-9 judges- chief justice appointed by the president and senate

BR 3-20-14

Judicial Restraint. Judicial decisions and rulings should be consistent from case to case. Overlooking precedents makes room for bias to come into play.

Chapter 18, Sect. 1

Alito, Jr., Samuel Anthony