- Identify and explain the organization of the Judiciary. The Judicial branch is structured into three different types of courts which are the supreme court, court of appeals, and the district courts. Among all these courts the supreme court is the most important/strongest of the courts. The supreme court has a total of 9 justices in which they resolve issues together an decide which case are brought to hearing. The court of appeals is the next most important of the courts at a medium level in government. The appeals court is considered to be strictly appellate which means that they have the jurisdiction to review cases on an appeal and reverse the decisions of inferior courts. The district courts are the most common of the courts in which they are considered to be the lowest level of the courts. There are about 94 district courts across the states and the court of appeals has 12 regional circuit courts.
- Identify and provide examples of the powers of the Judiciary powers. The Judiciary branch has the power of Judicial review in which they could check the constitutionality of a law. They interpret the laws and make sure that they are faithfully applied. They mainly deal with laws that violate the constitution and serve to resolve the problem and eventually come up with a final decision of a case. An example of the Judiciary powers is the Marbury vs Madison court case with established the concept of Judicial review.
- Identify and explain how Judiciary shares powers with the Congress, Executive, and bureaucracy. The way how the Judiciary shares powers with congress and the executive is that they can pick and choose who gets a seat in the courts and the Judiciary branch gets to serve as the group who determines the actual court cases. Each branch of government has the ability to check the other branches to make sure that neither is holding too much power. The president gets to choose the seats of the courts as congress gets to determine how many are allowed to be on the Judiciary. The bureaucracy can also aid in the making/enforcing of laws while the Judiciary can only interpret them. The founding fathers paid less attention to the courts because they had a pretty good idea of how they should be functioned, they focussed more on the other branches because they had to go more in depth with the lawmaking process and standards of government.
- Discuss the implications of Judiciary sharing powers with each of the following: Congress, Executive, and bureaucracy. The implications of the Judiciary sharing powers with congress, executive, and bureaucracy is that the Judiciary branch has to follow all the laws that the executive and congress impose on them. Its them who choose how many can be in the Judiciary and who, but its their job to carry out the constitutionality of a law. With the bureaucracy also aiding in the making of the laws and standards the Judicial branch must learn to follow there laws/standards. This all goes back to the concept of checks and balances.
- Discuss the functions that Judiciary performs. The functions that the Judiciary performs is that they review the constitutionality of the law by looking over the court case and finally coming up with a decision of certainty. They also interpret the laws and make sure that they are faithfully applied meaning that they make sure that the court case follows the law and in no way bend the law in their favor or go against a law. The Judiciary branch goes through many steps of approval and opinion which takes a long time to come to a final decision because they have to go through these steps in court.
- Identify how the power of the Judiciary has/may evolve gradually. The power of the Judiciary will evolve gradually because they have opened up their diversity which means more people have a chance to serve on the courts. This will enable them to see more cases and resolve them. With a small Judiciary it is hard for them to hear all the cases they receive so the increase in the Judiciary will only benefit them. The Judiciary needs to have some power because they are dealing with important court cases and have a lot of responsibility to ensure that the constitution is applied in the court.
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Judiciary and political parties. Political parties have a lot to do with the Judiciary because the president appoints all judges who are of his own party affiliation. If the president is a democrat then he is most likely going to appoint people who have a liberal view. If the president was republican then he would appoint conservatives because they share his/her views. There is a great deal between them because depending on the presidents party affiliation that determines who will have a seat in the courts.
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Judiciary and interest groups. Interest groups can easily influence the outcome of the government because they inform the constituents about what the court officials are leaning towards in government and this causes them to create appointments with them. The interest groups can either promote or go against the Judiciary branch as they have a broad influence over the people. The Judiciary can obtain information from the interest groups and use it to their advantage in court cases.
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Judiciary and media. The media has a strong voice when it comes to spreading their views on government because they act as the watchdog over the executive, Judiciary, and legislative branches to make sure there isn't any corruption going on. The media can serve to inform the public on these court hearings and add in their personal opinion that may or may not have an overall influence on the public. The Judiciary branch can also gain some valuable information concerning the court cases because the media might have some information regarding the case. The media could also make the Judiciary branch look bad as they relay information to the public about them in a different perspective.
- Identify and discuss the ties between the Judiciary and state and local governments. The state and local governments have something called original jurisdiction which is when if they find a case to be unconstitutional then that case is moved to the supreme court which is the most superior of the courts. For a case to make it to the supreme court it must first go through the district courts which are the lowest of the courts then it makes it to the court of appeals which is considered to be the intermediate level of the courts and then it makes it to the supreme court if the case has reached a higher level of jurisdiction. The state and local governments are well connected to the judiciary branch because they are the ones who get the cases to the supreme court.