Please get out your 12 Angry Men sheet.
On the back I want you to answer the following
question, in addition to the question on the
sheet:
How can the bias of a jury member potentially
change the outcome of a trial by jury case?
Supreme Court Review
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How many justices are there?
9
How are they chosen?
Nominated by Pres. & confirmed by vote of
Senate
How long are their terms?
Life…unless they are impeached
What are the qualifications according to the
Constitution?
There are no official Const. requirements.
Supreme Court
• Known as the Highest Court because it has
final power of judicial review, the power to
decide the constitutionality of an act of
government
• Marbury v. Madison 1803 established the
power of judicial review
How a Case Reaches the Supreme
Court
• Writ of certiorari: The Supreme Court orders a
lower court to send it a case’s record…most
common way
• Certificate: A lower court asks the Supreme
Court to certify a matter’s answer
• Origination: If a State or a diplomat is
involved
Exclusionary Rule
• If an unlawful search or seizure occurs, can
that “tainted evidence” be used in court?
• If so, the 4th Amendment offers no real
protection to a person accused of crime.
• To meet that problem, the Court adopted, and is still
refining, the exclusionary rule.
• Evidence gained as the result of an illegal act by
police cannot be used at the trial of the person from
whom it was seized
Writ of habeas corpus
• Writ of liberty
• Intended to prevent unjust arrests or
imprisonments
• It is a court order directed to an officer
holding a prisoner. It commands that the
prisoner be brought before the court and that
the officer explain, with good reason, why the
prisoner should not be released.
Guarantees of a fair trial
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Trial by jury
Adequate defense
Trial within a reasonable time
Innocent until proven guilty
What is due process?
• 5th Amendment: declares that the Federal
Government cannot deprive any person of
“life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law.”
• 14th Amendment: places that same restriction
on the States, and very importantly, on their
local governments.
What is due process?
• impossible to define in exact & complete terms
• The Supreme Court has consistently and
purposely refused to give an exact definition and
relied instead on finding the meaning on a caseby-case basis.
• Basically, though, in whatever it does,
government must act fairly and in accord with
established rules. It may not act unfairly,
arbitrarily, or unreasonably. (How and what of
government action.)