Our Government, the Judicial Branch

The Judicial Branch of Government
What is the Judicial Branch? Why is this branch important, what are the responsibilities/jobs of this branch?

When you go to work or school, or where ever you go every day, look around you. Do you see African-American people? Or you yourself if you are African-American, you see many different colors around you. You aren’t confined to be with people of the same color. This is because many years ago in 1954, the Supreme Court, decided that it was unconstitutional in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, for blacks and whites to be segregated. Then in 1957 this allowed the first black students called the Little Rock 9 enroll into an all white school. That time is past now, and many of us think nothing of the different colors of skin we see around us. In fact at this moment, we have a black candidate running for President of the United States of America. Before Brown vs. Board of Education, that would have been unthinkable! Now look how far the decisions of this Judicial Branch have taken us. This is just one of the many, many examples I could use to say how important this branch of our government is.

As I stated above this branch is very important. Its main purpose is to keep our country and laws constitutional, so none of us lose our constitutional rights. The Executive and Legislative branches are in charge of making the laws, and this branch makes sure the laws follow the constitution. When there is a law passed by the legislative and executive branch, the courts have the power of judicial review, to decide whether or not the law is constitutional. If the law violates the constitution, they can void that law or action, meaning that it will not be an enforced law.

There are many different levels of courts. The highest court is the Supreme Court, which was created the constitution. There are nine judges, called Justices, in the Supreme Court and one of them is the Chief Justice. The other lower courts were created by Congress who decided they were necessary. These are courts such as state and federal courts. When I was in middle school, studying about civil rights and the Brown vs. Board of Education, to learn more about how trials were held we went to the courthouse in our city. We watched the trial of a drug dealer. I think that’s mostly what we think about when we hear about courts and judges, criminals either getting proven innocent or guilty. A person breaking the law or in other words the constitution.

Right now there are people on the Supreme Court that have made decisions and will make decisions for us. The Executive Branch or the President gets to appoint these people. The justices on the Supreme Court also have political party preferences, so if there are more conservative judges than liberal, the court will most likely have a conservative ruling. That is one thing about the presidential election people are thinking about. If either Obama or McCain gets elected, that will definitely have an impact on who one of the next Supreme Court judges will be. Think about these nine people on the Supreme Court, what kinds of characteristics would you like them to have? Think about how these nine people have the power to make huge decisions for our country.

The Supreme Court has had to rule on were such things as Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal in the whole country. This is one big issue with lots of controversy. Another is gay marriage. Is it constitutional to deny people who love each other the right to marriage even if they are the same sex? Is it constitutional to allow it?

Do you feel comfortable with the fact that the President in the Executive Branch gets to choose who these people are? Should this be changed? Keep in mind that these people can be judges for their whole life if they choose to be. It's a little crazy and scary that we put so much faith in our government to make decisions for us. The least we can do is decide from the few people who will be in the government and vote when we can.

But really I think we often forget that the Judicial system is in fact a part of our government and do have a say in how our country works. All we can hope is that these people have a strong sense of justice and integrity.