What are some of the dangers of passing any constitutional changes to the number of justices? President Roosevelt was outraged when the Supreme Court invalidated two of the most important New Deal initiatives – the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act on what he regarded as an outmoded interpretation of the Constitution. Like many liberals, he believed that much of the problem stemmed from a bloc of four conservative Supreme Court justices – the so-called “Four Horsemen” – who seemed to oppose any federal intrusion into economic affairs. Given that there was a total of nine justices on the Court, all the Horsemen needed to do to block any New Deal measure was to convince one more justice that their interpretation was correct. Emboldened by his overwhelming reelection victory in 1936, the president in February called congressional leaders and members of his cabinet to a meeting at the White House, and informed them that the Judicial Procedures Reform Act was being put before Congress that same day. Many of the justices on the Supreme Court were elderly, the president explained, and needed more assistance in working through the Court’s heavy caseload. The act, therefore, proposed to add a new justice for every member above seventy years of age. Given the makeup of the current Court, this would allow Roosevelt to name no fewer than six new justices. There was nothing unconstitutional about Roosevelt’s plan, since the Constitution does not specify how many judges the Supreme Court should have. When some in Congress balked at Roosevelt’s plan – accusing the president of trying to “pack” the Court – he took to the airwaves in one of his famous “Fireside Chats.” Instructions: Listen to FDR’s speech by clicking on the link below. Click here to listen to FDR’s Fireside Chat on Reorganization of the Judiciary, March 9, 1937 Answer the following questions: 1. Why does Roosevelt think that the federal judiciary needs to be changed? How does he invoke the Constitution to defend this? What is his proposal, and on what grounds does he seek to justify it? 2. What are some of the positive reasons to change the Judiciary? 3. What are some of the dangers of passing any constitutional changes to the number of justices? 4. Why did the “Court Packing” Plan ultimately fail? 5. Do you believe the US Supreme Court should be changed? Why or why not?
Supreme Court
Discuss and differentiate the legal rights, trial processes, and correctional alternatives of adult vs. juvenile offenders.
Discuss and differentiate the legal rights, trial processes, and correctional alternatives of adult vs. juvenile offenders. You also learned that juvenile law is constantly evolving and responding to temporary issues. For this assignment, you will be researching a constitutional law case related to juvenile delinquency or criminal proceedings decided by the United States Supreme Court. To begin, locate an opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court that involves a criminal offender under the age of 18 and raises a constitutional question (or questions) related to the juvenile justice process. For help locating U.S. Supreme Court cases, see: Supreme Court of the United States Justia After selecting a case, you must write a case brief /analysis. Your case brief/analysis should be 700-1,000 words in length (not including your Reference page). Use distinct headings to clearly identify each element (prompt) of your case brief. Case Brief Prompts Your case brief should include each of the following elements: Legal and Procedural History: What is the history of the selected case? What prior courts heard the case? What were the rulings of the involved prior courts? Facts: What are the critical facts of the case? Identify the parties and the facts that were considered in the Court’s ultimate holding. Issues: What were the specific legal question(s) presented to the U.S. Supreme Court? Present the issues in clear and concise question format. If there were multiple legal questions, list each issue separately. Holding (Decision): How did the U.S. Supreme Court answer the issues? What was the Court’s final decision with respect to each issue? Court Rationale: Summarize the U.S. Supreme Court’s reasoning. Why did the Court rule in the way that it did? How and why did the Court arrive at its ultimate answers to the legal issues? Analysis: Share an original analysis and interpretation of the case and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling. What is the case’s significance? How do the rights of juveniles in this case compare to the rights of adults in criminal cases? How has the case impacted our courts? How has the case impacted our government and/or our citizens? Do you agree with the Court’s analysis? Related Lessons The following lessons from the course may help you with this assignment. The Legal Rights of Juveniles Major U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Impacting the Juvenile Justice System In Re Gault Case of 1967: Summary & Decision Kent v. United States: Summary Graham v. Florida: Summary & Decision Using & Formatting Sources Please write your paper in the APA format. As part of your research, you may refer to the course material for supporting evidence, but you must also use at least two credible, outside sources and cite them using APA format as well. Please include a mix of both primary and secondary sources, with at least one source from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal. If you use any Study.com lessons as sources, please also cite them in APA (including the lesson title and instructor’s name). Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews, advertisements, speeches, company documents, statements, and press releases published by the company in question. Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals, such as the Journal of Management. You may use like JSTOR, Google Scholar, and Social Science Research Network to find articles from these journals. Secondary sources may also come from reputable websites with .gov, .edu, or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is not a reputable source, though the sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.) If you’re unsure about how to use APA format for your paper and sources, please see the following lessons: What is APA Format? Definition & Style How To Format APA Citations