January 6, 2021

Today, Craig Benzine is going to dive into the factors that influence judicial decisions. As you may have noticed, the Supreme Court recently handed down some pretty big decisions on same-sex marriage (in Obergefell v Hodges) and the Affordable Care Act (in King v. Burwell). Now, it’s important to remember that these decisions are not made in a vacuum, but influenced by the other branches of government, political affiliations, and past court decisions. We’re also talk about a judge’s judicial philosophy – that is their relative restraint or activism in making decisions on laws. Judicial restraint is often equated with conservatism, but as we’ll show you, this is not always the case. 

Today, Craig Benzine is going to tell you about the Supreme Court’s most important case, Marbury v. Madison, and how the court granted itself the power of judicial review. Judicial review is the power to examine and invalidate actions of the legislative and executive branches. It happens at both the state and federal court levels, but today we’re going to focus primarily on the court at the top – the Supreme Court of the United States. Now it’s important to remember that the court has granted itself these powers and they aren’t found within the Constitution, but as with the executive and legislative branches, the courts rely heavily on implied powers to get stuff done.

This week Craig Benzine talks about what happens when a case makes it to the Supreme Court of the United States (or the SCOTUS). We’re going to focus on court procedure today. We talk about how to petition to get your case heard, how written arguments, or briefs, are made, what actually happens on the courtroom floor, and of course the variety of ways the SCOTUS issues opinions on cases.

This week Craig Benzine is going to talk about the structure of the U.S. court system and how exactly it manages to keep things moving smoothly. We’’ll talk about trial courts, district courts, appeals courts, circuit courts, state supreme courts, and of course the one at the top – the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s all quite a bit to manage with jurisdictions and such, but it’s important to remember that the vast majority of cases never even make it to court! Most are settled out of court, but also terms like mootness and ripeness are used to throw cases out altogether. Today, we’re going to focus on how cases make it to the top, and next week we’ll talk about what happens when they get there. 

This week Craig Benzine takes a first look at the judicial branch. It’s pretty easy to forget that the courts, and the laws that come out of them, affect our lives on a daily basis. But how exactly these decisions are made and where each law’s jurisdiction starts and ends can get pretty complicated. So complicated in fact that you may want to smash something. But don’t worry, Craig will clear the way.