How An Individual’S Power, Money, And Or Socioeconomic Status Can Affect The Justice Administered To Them By The United States Judicial Branch.
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How an individual’s power, money, and or socioeconomic status can affect the justice administered to them by the United States judicial branch.
The Judicial Branch of the United States government is an extremely important factor in the success of today’s society, without it, society would have no standard of order and things would be completely and utterly chaotic! As a matter of fact no country would be complete without a Judicial Branch or some type of government in place because it is mandatory in the successful and smooth running of a civilized society. As Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, once stated, “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.” What is the Judicial Branch? The general purpose of the judicial branch is to hear cases, interpret federal law, including the Constitution, and administer fair justice to all United States Citizens. The Judicial Branch consists of the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. In the majority of cases the Judicial Branch administers fair justice to all, after all, the law requires it to, and the National Pledge of Allegiance promises that the United States is “…One Nation under God with liberty and justice for all.” Sadly, there have been some cases passed through the judicial system in which the involved parties did not receive fair justice. Usually, in these rare cases, the court decision is unfairly and or negatively influenced by other factors. More specifically, some judicial rulings have been affected for the worse by the participating parties’ power, socioeconomic status, and/or money.
John Grisham in his legal thriller, The Pelican Brief, gives a fictional, yet realistic example of how a government official used his power to influence the Judicial System. Basically two Supreme Court justices were murdered and no one knew why or who did it. A law student named Darby Shaw writes a brief about who she suspects is the killer and in the long run, she turns out to be correct in her accusations. The government official happens to be the President of the United States, and he is actually friends with the person behind the murders and tries to ignore and cover up the brief because of this. Even more importantly the person behind the murders had contributed money to the President’s platform and was part of the reason why he was elected. The President knew that if the media got a hold of this information the public might not elect him or even worse he could be impeached. In the long run, the suspect is finally caught and indicted.
The connotation of a socioeconomic status is a demographic term which considers the combination of social and economic factors. (Webster’s Dictionary) The broken down basis for these can include race, level of education, gender, area a person lives in, and etcetera. On the news there is often a story about an unfair court decision, in which the jury or judge is racist or sexist, or biased. Basing a court decision on these factors is actually illegal. The 14th Amendment of the Bill of rights says Section 1. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.” and ,Section 5. “The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this Article.” Congress in 1875 also took the liberty of explaining to the Courts what the words “equal protection of the law” meant by passing an enforcement law that said: Section 1.”Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude”, (United States Constitution, Bill of Rights)and section two even described penalties for those who violated Section 1. All of this is important because the Supreme Court, in 1896, ruled that separate