U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court
Introduction
As in the all modern democracies, the governance in the USA is based on the principle of separation of powers. There are three branches of power, namely legislative, executive and judiciary. Due to the fact that the USA is a federal state, separate judicial systems function at the federal and state levels. According to the information, presented at the official website of the U.S. judiciary, the federal judiciary is comprised of such courts as district (trial) courts, which function within the limits, set by the Constitution of the U.S. and the Congress, appellate courts, which hear appeals to the decisions of district (trial) courts, located in relevant circuits and the Supreme Court of the USA, which is the highest court within the system of federal judiciary, constitutionally authorized to reconsider highly limited number of cases (U.S. Courts, 2013). The history of the USA democracy dates back to the 18th century, when the Constitution of the USA was adopted. For the purposes of this assignment we will concentrate on the history of the Supreme Court of the USA with a special emphasis on its being a part of the USA criminal justice system.
Analysis
In 1789, short after the Constitution of the USA was adopted, one of key tasks, set before the Congress was to fulfill the constitutionally set requirements, providing for the structure of the judiciary. Article III, section I of the U.S. Constitution provides that the "judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish” (U.S. Const. art. I, § 3).
The first decision of the Supreme Court was West v. Barnes and the earliest case regarding oral argument. The case was decided on procedural grounds, without even referring to the merits of the case. Several other cases, considered in the court during the first years of their existence, were Chishom v. Georgia, Marbury v.Madison and Gibbson v.Ogden. The importance of Gibbson v.Ogden (1824) lied n the fact that the decision in this case explicitly provided for supremacy of federal law in case there is the conflict between provisions of federal law and state legislation. This decision was a landmark one with regard not only to further activities of the U.S. Supreme Court, but functioning of other authorities, belonging to all branches of power. While lots of decisions, having been made by the U.S. Supreme Court at earliest stage of its development, can be considered to directly contradict key principles of modern international and U.S. human rights law (e.g., Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Plessy v.Ferguson (1896), vast majority of decisions, which were made after World War II are aimed at promoting democracy and human rights.
U.S. Supreme Court cases, which have affected criminal justice in the light of human rights protection, can be conditionally classified into several large groups, basing on the issue they concern. Issues, which were most often considered by U.S. Supreme Court, are freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, right to attorney, right to remain silent, competencies and capital punishment.
The history of the U.S. Supreme Court case law regarding search and seizure dates back to the decision in Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which affirmed that evidence, which is obtained in violation of the U.S. Constitution is inadmissible in a criminal trial in a state court. Inadmissibility of warrantless wiretapping was a subject of Katz v. the U.S. (1972). Thereafter the need to get a warrant before starting electronic surveillance was highlighted in United States v U.S. District Court (1972). Several further cases in this regard were dedicated to deciding on lawfulness of drug testing in school.
Most well-known case with regard to the right to counsel is Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), which affirmed the right to attorney for anyone, charged with a serious criminal offence, and state’s obligation to provide one in case a person cannot afford himself/herself to hire a counsel. Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) was the first case, which provided for the right of a person in police custody to speak to an attorney. Another landmark case concerning rights of the suspect is Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which set the obligation of the police to advise criminal suspects of their rights under the Constitution. In Berghius v. Thompkins (2010), the Court ruled that the right to remain silent does not exist before having been unambiguously invoked.
As for competency-related cases, it is worth mentioning Dusky v. the U.S. (1960), which for the first time provided for the right of a defendant to have competency evaluation before the trial. In Ford v. Wainwright (1986) the Court went further, affirming defendant’s right to competency evaluation before execution.
A wide range of cases, concerning capital punishment, were decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The issues under study were imposing multilevel tests to justify appropriateness of using death penalty, constitutionality of states’ statutes, as well as restricting the usage of death penalty for some crimes and with regard to particular categories of individuals.
In more political than legal terms it worth mentioning that the U.S. Supreme Court is believed to play a significant role in federal decision-making due to making decisions, touching their lives. The term “new federalism” is often used to describe the rules, which appear due to the need to make an ambiguous language of the U.S. Constitution clear (Banks&Blakeman, 2012, p.53). In one more meaning the term “new federalism” can refer to the reinvigoration of states’ rights by the U.S. Supreme Court and other institutions (Modeisett, 1998, p.142). As it is clearly seen from the analysis above, these rules are applicable to criminal justice system.
Conclusion
For the time being, the Supreme Court of the USA is the highest instance in terms of federal judiciary. Since its being established in the end of 18th century, the Court has undergone wide range of organizational (i.e. structural) and procedural changes. Over its more than two hundred long history, the Court has produced variety of rulings of critical importance for such spheres of regulation as distribution of powers between different governmental actors at the federal and state level, constitutionally set citizens’ rights and freedoms (e.g., freedom of speech, freedom of the media, the right to life), the rights of the suspect (the right to silence, absolute right to attorney, prohibition of using unlawfully obtained materials as evidence in courts etc.). The analysis I conducted for the purposes of this assignment shows importance of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions for the development of federal criminal justice system in the light of human rights promotion.
References
Banks, C.P., Blakeman, J.C. (2012). The U.S. Supreme Court and new federalism: from the Rehnquist to Roberts court. Lanham: Rowman&Littlefield
Dred Scott v. Sandford. 60 U.S. 393 (1857)
Dusky v. the U.S. 362 U.S. 402. (1960)
Ford v. Wainwright. 477 U.S. 399. (1986)
Gibbson v.Ogden. 22 U.S.1. (1824)
Gideon v. Wainwright. 372 U.S. 335. (1963)
Mapp v. Ohio. 367 U.S. 643. (1961)
Modisett, J. (1998). Discovering the impact of the “new federalism” of state policy-makers: a state attorney general perspective. Indiana Law Review, 32 (141), pp.141-154
Plessy v.Ferguson. 163 U.S. 537. (1896)
U.S. Const. art. I, § 3
United States Courts (2013). Retrieved 19 October 2013 from http://www.uscourts.gov
United States v U.S. District Court. 407 U.S. 297. (1972)
U.S. Const. art. I, § 3
