Question 1: Presidents play many roles within government and party. Using a news article from the last four weeks, demonstrate which is most important and why?
Answer. The President of United States of America has some crucial roles which are regarding the nation, armed forces, foreign policies, lawmaking, economy, and his own party. In his various roles for the government, the President is supposed to use his powers for legislations, government executive agencies, and as a custodian of national economy. The President is also held accountable for the representation of his party in the senate and how many members from his party hold key cabinet positions in the government (Lenz & Holman, 2013). The importance of government’s stand towards economy and legislation generally superimposes over the responsibility of President to ensure that his own arty gets properly represented in the senate. Consequently, all the legislation gets driven by the opposition owing to their majority in the legislative bodies.
The news article from Mara Liasson illustrates how the Democratic Party diminished to its least representation status in the last 8 years of President Obama’s tenure. The fall in Democrats has been a significant low from 60 to 46 in the Senate and from 257 to 188 in the House (Liasson, 2016). In spite of the remarkable attainment of Obama’s government in healthcare reforms, Economic upswing, climatic change initiatives, etc. the only failure which Obama’s legacy will uphold is the shrunk presence of Democratic Party. Obama’s role in bringing more of his party’s members to the cabinet was not successful enough as the Republicans were more approachable and relatively more aggressive in claiming larger chunk of the legislative bodies (Liasson, 2016). Thus, the article clearly shows how an important role for the President towards his party got sidelined to a record low against the highlighted results gained from his role to the government. It is a statistical fact that Democratic Party has least number of offices held in the nation since 1920 (Liasson, 2016).
References
Liasson, M. (2016).The Democratic Party Got Crushed during the Obama Presidency. Here's Why. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2016/03/04/469052020/the-democratic-party-got-crushed-during-the-obama-presidency-heres-why
Lenz, T. & Holman, M. (2013).American Government. 1stedition. University Press of Florida, 121-300. Print.
______________________________________________________________________________
Question 2: Select a recent Supreme Court case from "Recent Decisions" on the Supreme Court website http://www.supremecourt.gov/, and explain why the Supreme Court accepted it for adjudication (not what the case is about).
Answer. The below mentioned case from the ‘Recent Decisions’ given by the Supreme Court will be used to explain why the Supreme Court chose it for further adjudication.
Argued on: November 30, 2015
Decision on: January 25, 2015
The Supreme Court can hear the cases of dispute between the states, between individuals, against federal laws, between states and citizens, and when a case is petitioned against the judgment delivered by a lower court using the Writs of Certiorari, falling under the appellate jurisdiction (About Federal Courts, 2016). The case was already given with a verdict initially by the District court and then by United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the accused, Musacchio was given a 60 years imprisonment for unauthorized access another company’s computer records (Recent Decisions, 2016). The petitioner challenged the decision of District court in the Fifth Court stating the insufficiency of evidence and when the Fifth court also continued with the district court’s judgment, Musacchio brought it to the purview of appellate jurisdiction (Recent Decisions, 2016).
The Supreme Court can take a case that lies in the appellate jurisdiction when a lower court’s decision is challenged and brought forward to the Supreme Court. Further, the petitioner exercised the Writ of Certiorari as he was not satisfied with the highest court of law within the state. The Supreme Court is not bound to review such cases and considers only if the case of some national significance or it has already been adjudicated by the highest court in the state's jurisdiction. As the Musacchio’s case challenged the rule of the Fifth Court and it used the appellate jurisdiction to enter the consideration of Supreme Court’s review panel, it was taken up for further adjudication by the Supreme Court (About Federal Courts, 2016).
References
About Federal Courts (2016) .Supreme Court Procedures. Retrieved from http://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/supreme-1
Recent Decisions (2016).Supreme Court of United States of America. Retrieved from http://www.supremecourt.gov/
