AF-separation-of-powers-Digital-20 - Flipbook - Page 21
JUDICIAL BRANCH
SCOTUS β The Last
Line Of Defense
A
rticle III of the Constitution vests judicial power
in βone Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts
as Congress may from time to time ordain and
establish.β Article III provides us with a framework
for our Judicial Branch and confers power to the
Judiciary to ensure we are a country of free people
living together in order and harmony; with social
norms; practicing civil decency, and believing in
the concept of social trust.
The Judicial Branch is the most vital to the success
of our nation. It delivers final resolutions to cases
and controversies and provides aggrieved parties
with a venue and mechanism to be made whole
when the conduct of another causes us to suffer
injuries or monetary damages. It settles
controversies to which our federal government or a
state is a party. The Judiciary is to apply equal
justice to all, including safeguarding the rights of
those who are accused of committing a crime
during all stages of legal proceedings and
prosecutions and thereafter. It encourages finality
with dispatch for conflicts and interprets our
Constitution to ensure other laws do not conflict
and to make certain our God-given rights are not
violated by our government.
Per Article III, in America, we have one Supreme
Court of the United States (SCOTUS) with vested
power over cases and controversies. This means
that there is no higher authority in our country,
whatsoever, to render decisions and settle disputes.
Article III goes on to explain Congress may
establish additional courts, but any and all courts
established by Congress shall always be inferior to
the SCOTUS. Our SCOTUS has the final say and is
our last line of defense against power that starts to
slip into the realm of corruption and tyranny.
From government abusing power to ordinary
disputes arising between neighbors and everything
in between, an independent and disinterested
arbiter is necessary for a fair consideration of all
sides. Judges play this role β they listen to
testimony of all parties and witnesses; they study
the evidence; they apply law to fact, and they draw
a rational and fair resolution guided by reason and
due consideration (or they are supposed to
anyway). This great responsibility is placed in the
hands of the nine Justices of the SCOTUS and all
other U.S. judges who preside over all other courts
in our nation. When the SCOTUS issues a
decision, it is considered law and is binding on all
other courts, governments, and citizens. SCOTUS
decisions are final.
During the 1829 -1830 Virginia State Convention
debates, Chief Justice Marshall, used the following
frequently quoted language to describe the
important role an honest Judiciary plays in the lives
of all citizens:
The Judicial [branch] comes home in its effects
to every man's fireside; it passes on his property,
his reputation, his life, his all. Is it not, to the last
degree important, that he [the judge] should be
rendered perfectly and completely independent,
with nothing to influence or control him but
God and his conscience? . . . I have always
thought, from my earliest youth till now, that the
greatest scourge an angry Heaven ever inflicted
upon an ungrateful and a sinning people, was
an ignorant, a corrupt, or a dependent Judiciary. 21