The Supreme Court of the United States
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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all federal court cases and over state court cases that involve a point of U.S. constitutional or federal law.
Established by Article Three of the U.S. Constitution, the composition and procedures of the Supreme Court were initially established by the 1st Congress through the Judiciary Act of 1789. The court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution.
It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The court may decide cases having political overtones, but has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions.
The court consists of the chief justice of the United States and eight associate justices. Justices have lifetime tenure, until they die, retire, resign, or are impeached and removed from office. When a vacancy occurs, the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoints a new justice. Each justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before the court.
Current members include John G. Roberts Jr. as the chief justice of the United States and Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson as associate justices.
Of these nine, the person who has been on the Supreme Court the longest is Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. The most recent member is Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2022.
Of all nine, six were nominated by Republican presidents and three by Democratic presidents, but does that really matter? Since the primary duty of the Supreme Court is to rule whether an existing law is constitutional or not, “party politics” should not ever be a factor in rendering their decisions.
Historically, the Supreme Court is not above making bad decisions, most notable is Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which held that African Americans, whether free men or slaves, could not be considered American citizens. The ruling undid the Missouri Compromise, barred laws that would free slaves, and all but guaranteed that there would be no political solution to slavery. The opinion even included a ridiculous “parade of horribles” that would happen if Scott were recognized as a citizen, unspeakable scenarios like African Americans being able to vacation, hold public meetings, and exercise their free speech rights.
Other notable bad calls by the SCOTUS include (but are not limited to):
– Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), where the court’s famous “separate but equal” ruling upheld state segregation laws. In doing so, the court made sure that the gains of the post-Civil War reconstruction era were quickly replaced by decades of Jim Crow laws.
– Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927), wherein the court upheld the forced sterilization of those with intellectual disabilities “for the protection and health of the state.”
– Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), where the Supreme Court upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, finding that the need to protect against espionage outweighed the individual rights of American citizens.
As a Libertarian, and as a Constitutionalist, I have noted that many of the recent cases do in fact uphold our U.S. Constitution. Most notable to me was the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. ___ (2022), where they further confirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense in public, outside of the home.
The big case in the news last year was Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. ___ (2022), that struck down Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). While I respect a woman’s right to her own bodily autonomy, I am compelled to equally respect the bodily autonomy of a fetus, who likewise is entitled to the same life, liberty and pursuit of happiness as the rest of us. I concurred with their decision, as there is nothing in our U.S. Constitution that addresses any female specific issues beyond the Nineteenth Amendment that prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.
If there is anything in our U.S. Constitution that is applicant to abortions, it is the 10th Amendment, wherein it states that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated, or enumerated, to it through the Constitution, and that all other powers are reserved to the states, or to the people.
… But I digress, as this rabbit hole was not what I intended to address in today’s opinion piece.
While I approve of most of the recent cases by our SCOTUS, I wholeheartedly disagree with its recent ruling in Polselli v. IRS, 21-1599 (2023), where the U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous 9-0 opinion, ruled that it is now officially legal for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to secretly obtain the bank records of third-party individuals who are not under investigation. Because of this new ruling, you can be a person who committed no crime – not even be suspected of having committed a crime – and yet still, if the IRS is trying to collect back taxes from anyone that you have ever potentially had a business transaction with, they can pull your bank records, as well.
This entire process can play out in secret, without you ever being informed that the feds have accessed your bank records. I disagree with this ruling, as it completely ignores that the actions being conducted by the IRS are in violation of our 4th Amendment right that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures without a warrant based on stated probable cause. … In Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), the Supreme Court previously ruled that “where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.”