Chapter 14 Blog

Here is what I learned about our US Supreme Court Justices:

• John Roberts-Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, appointed by President George Bush Sr., graduated from Harvard Law. He was the captain of his football team at LaLumiere High School in LaPorte, Indiana. 
• Sonia Sotomayer-She is the first Hispanic American supreme court justice, appointed by President Obama. She grew up poor in the housing projects in South Bronx. She attended Princeton University and Yale. 
• Stephen Breyer-Appointed by President Clinton, he attended Stanford, Nagladen College at Oxford, and Harvard Law. In his early career, he was a law clerk to former Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg.
• Samuel Alito-Appointed by President George Bush Sr. He attended Princeton and Yale. He was also in the ROTC program and was later in the Army Reserves.
• Elena Kagan- Appointed by President Obama, she attended Harvard and Princeton, and was the first female Dean at Harvard Law. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a teacher. 
• Clarence Thomas-Appointed by President George Bush Sr., he attended Yale school of Law, which Thomas considers his degree to be worth 15 cents. He grew up extremely poor, his father abandoned his family when Thomas was 2 years old. His mother, struggling to make ends meet, took the family to live with her parents, at which point Thomas learned the value of hard work from his grandfather. 
• Antonin Scalia-Appointed by President Reagan, he graduated from Harvard Law. Though he was always at the top of his class, I found him to be the least interesting of the justices. He is even quoted as saying, "I was never cool". 
• Anthony Kennedy-Appointed by President Reagan, he attended Stanford and Harvard Law. His father was an attorney and he was once in the Army National Guard. 
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg-Appointed by President Clinton, she attended Cornell University, Columbia and Harvard Law schools. She was the first Jewish female to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Most of her law career was devoted to the advancement of women's rights. 

In the case of Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush (2002), Sonya Sotomayer upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the Mexico City Policy, a policy that states that no country receiving funds from the US government may use the money to fund abortions.  In this case an abortion rights group claimed that this policy violated their First Amendment rights. Sotomayer wrote that "since the claims are based on International Law, they are indistinguishable from the First Amendment. She also wrote that "The Supreme Court is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position and can do so without public funds."  I agree with her for several reasons. As a firm believer in pro-life, I am against abortion in general. I also feel that our government should only give money and assistance to other countries where it is absolutely essential, not for abortions. I agree that US Constitutional Rights only apply to American soil. 

Judicial Review should be used regularly. I feel that the implementation of Judicial Review gives an adequate balance of power to the judicial branch, in relation to the executive and legislative branches. I feel that it is of utmost importance that statutes and treaties passed are constitutional, therefore it is important that the Supreme Court has the power to overturn any law passed through Congress. 

I think it is important for the High Court to consider the intent of the Framers, while considering the changes in society. I believe in our Constitution, however it was implemented 225 years ago. We are a completely different society today. Our country is much larger now, and with very different major issues than in the latter 1700's. With that being said, I think that if we stray to far from the strict construction of our Constitution, our country will begin to lose it's way, entirely.

   
Blogs I commented on:
-Dylan Thevenard
-Robert Johnson
-Matthew Cooper