...Supreme Court Case Happy Villa May 19, 2014 Loanan Ase In the case of Robert Tolan and Marian Tolan vs. Jeffrey Wayne Cotton, I will be discussing what interest me about this case. I will also deliberating on the liability and criminal liability of this case. The Tolan vs. Cotton case interests me because the United States have so many police that are brutalizing citizens. In some cases the police officers are getting away with it. After reading, reviewing, and studying this case I have learn a lot about the criminal system and laws that men and women should obey. I will explain how the nine judges on the Supreme courts all came to a verdict against the police officer Jeffrey Cotton after he shot an innocent suspect. This people will explain how a person technical error can cause such harm mentally, physically, and finically on a single family. Sources, Purposes, and Jurisdictions Robert and Marian Tolan are mother and son that is suing a former officer by the name of Jeffrey Wayne Cotton for using deadly force against an unarm innocent man. Cotton was indicted in May 2009. According to "Find Law" (2014), “Sergeant Cotton and Officer Edwards violated Robbie and Marian Tolan's right to freedom from excessive force (under Fourth Amendment, incorporated in Fourteenth); and both Officers acted in furtherance of a City of Bellaire official policy of racial profiling and discrimination.” The purpose of the Tolans taking their case to the Supreme Courts was “because no genuine...
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...Supporters of affirmative action fear that the Supreme Court could curtail or further restrict the use of race-conscious admissions policies at public universities. On Wednesday, all eyes will be on Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote is considered pivotal in the case brought by a white Texan who has sued the University of Texas at Austin, claiming that she was denied admission to the school in 2008 because of her race. Abigail Fisher, who has since graduated from Louisiana State University, said she was subject to unequal treatment in violation of the 14th Amendment. "I was taught from the time I was a little girl that any kind of discrimination was wrong, and for an institution of higher learning to act this way makes no sense to me," Fisher said in an interview clip posted on the website of the Project on Fair Representation, a legal defense foundation that's providing her with legal representation. On the other side are lawyers for the University of Texas, who argue that, like many other universities, UT seeks to assemble a class that is diverse in innumerable ways -- including race -- and that "race is just one of many characteristics that form the mosaic presented by an applicant's file." More than 90 friend of the court briefs have been filed in the case, with the Obama administration weighing in favor of the university. Others, who support Fisher, argue that diversity can be achieved through race-neutral programs, and that race-preferential admissions policies can...
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...Panetti v Quarterman Facts of the Case September 8, 1992 Scott Panetti shaved off his hair, put on his military fatigues (he had served briefly in the Navy), and proceeded to drive to the home of his wife’s parents house. His wife had very recently left him because he was abusive not only to her and their young daughter, but also heavily abused alcohol. He entered the home by breaking into a sliding glass door. While his wife begged him to stop, he pointed his rifle at her mother; shooting and killing her in front of his wife and 3 year old daughter. He proceeded to then shoot her father, again, in front of her and her child. Blood spattered onto their 3 year old daughter. He shot his parents-in-law at extremely close range. After killing Amanda and Joe Alvarado, he took his wife and daughter to the place he had been living and held them captive through the night. The next morning he let them go without any harm. Several hours after releasing them he put on a dress suit and drove to the Giuseppe police station where he turned himself in for the murders. While at the station he explained to the police that an auditory hallucination named Sarge was in control during the murders. He also referenced his act was of divine intervention, therefore his victims did not suffer during their deaths. Scott Panetti had a long history of mental illness. There was a report filed when he served in the Navy in regards to his mental health dating back to 1975. The prior 6 years before the shooting...
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...There were three Supreme Court cases that highlighted hate speech and how they were used by the plaintiff/defendant. The most well-known court case was National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie in 1979. The Supreme Court ruled that the use of swastikas were a symbolic form of free speech and they were not "fighting words." It established that any controversial organizations were granted protected under the First Amendment to do anything as long it did not violate it. And it did not just crushed those organizations’ rights to be vocal of their opinions and expression it in the form of protesting and hosting speeches in the public. The next Supreme Court case addressed laws that limited someone’s freedom of expression and speech....
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...U.S. Supreme Court Case CJA/354 Criminal Law The Supreme Court of the United States is the Nation’s highest court, and was established on 4, March 1789; the court is made up of a Chief Justice and five Associated Justices. From the time the United States established the Supreme Court there has been 112 Justices of the court, including 17 Chief Justices ("United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary ", n.d.). Over the years the United States Supreme Court has heard cases brought on by one state against another, between state and federal government known as “original jurisdiction” actions, cases from state courts, and cases brought up of reviewable decisions made in federal appellate or district courts ("Supreme Court Historical Society ", n.d.). The case being used for this paper has two separate cases involved, but I will only be using one as a reference. The two cases in which were brought to the United States Supreme Court together are very similar and involve teens being given life sentences without the possibility of parole for committing murder. The United States Supreme Courts case number is 10-9646, Miller v. Alabama. This case was brought to the United States Supreme Court on 20, March 2012, involving two fourteen year old boys, whom were found guilty of murder in two separate cases, and also from two separate states, one being Alabama and the other being that of Arkansas. With in each of these cases one of the boys did the killing and...
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...In the 1950s, the court found itself more and more concerned with the constitutional rights of the individual. Freedom of speech and other civil liberty issues were repeatedly brought before the court during this period of concern. Similarly, Congressional interrogation practices, state sedition laws, and other questionable methods used by the authorities in uncovering Communists in and out of government came under careful inspections near the end of the decade. The court's willingness to hold the constitutional guarantees of free speech and due process as above the alleged needs of internal security brought strong criticism from conservative jurists and led to attempts in Congress to curb the court's jurisdiction. In considering who makes the best argument concerning the role of the Supreme Court in interpreting the constitution, Justice Brennans view makes the best argument. His speech about the text and teaching symposium is one of the best arguments. He states that The Declaration, Constitution, and the Bill of Rights...
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...Civil Rights and Liberties Supreme Court Case 2 Douglas Ganim Thursday, November 5, 2015 VOTE: 5-4 in favor of Sally Spyalot, Director of National Security Agency JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the court Shortly after September 11, 2001, at the request of the National Security Agency, several of the major phone companies were asked to provide phone records for all calls made within the United States, and all calls made to the United States from other countries. The data the NSA received, provided information on the phone number the call was made to and from, the call’s duration, the date of the call, and the time of day. No Financial data, nor content of the calls, were ever obtained by NSA. This action proceeded without a warrant for any of the information provided. In addition, there was no individual suspicion since this was considered “meta-data” or “bulk data collection” of phone records. The vast majority of the data was analyzed by computer programs and never looked at by NSA personnel. Before we delve into an analysis of the court’s decision in this case, it is prudent we first address an important point. Prior to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, few American’s contemplated a threat to homeland security. Today, the fear of terrorism is ingrained in our daily thoughts. Following the events of 9/11, American’s sense of safety nearly vanished, and the direction, and scope of national security were forever changed. The National Security Administration...
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...1. Who says what a corporation can tell its consumers? Where are the boundaries when it comes to government interfering with free enterprise? Do we let corporations do and tell us what they want? These are all questions regarding the use of commercial speech and its restrictions within the first amendment. In an advertisement seen on page (213) in the text, we can see an ad for an electric corset for women that stated that it kept them healthy warded off disease. In a court case in December of 1961 the FTC issued a cease and desist order against Colgate-Palmolive company charging for 3 television ads saying they were “false and deceptive”(216). Eventually after the case went to the supreme court in 1963 they ruled in favor of the FTC which...
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...U.S. District courts are the lowest federal courts. Any federal cases are argued in these courts. They follow Supreme Court decisions. So there is room for misunderstanding. It’s not common for losing parties to appeal. U.S. courts of appeals are the ones that go from district to federal. This court bases their decision on the lower court’s records. There are 13 appeal courts. One of them has jurisdiction over patents and international trade. There are 4-6 judges in each court, but it’s rare for all of them to be there. Each circuit in monitored by a Supreme Court Justice. The Supreme court reviews less than 1 percent of the cases heard by federal appeals courts (389). Special U.S. courts include Claims Courts. Cases where the U.S. Government...
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...tried to force Elaine Molbley into being Baptist. The Title VII of the Civil rights Act of 1964 applies in this case. They attempted to convert her to Baptist, and she became too stressed to attend work because of the efforts taken by the Virginia Health Department and they fired her. She did not want to convert to Baptist and the organization took job action against her. The court must decide if she was fired for not converting to Baptist. If I was the judge, I would rule the Virginia Health Department guilty of unlawful discrimination, because they put Molbley in a stressful environment and forced her to join a certain religion, and she did not so they fired her. 2. Edward Roberts was discriminated against in the application process to work as a tractor trailer driver. The company is violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. They hired employees after Edwards submitted an application and claimed it was because they did...
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...Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama case, the lower courts decided that the redistricting conducted by the Republicans after the 2010 census was not motivated by racial gerrymandering, but instead was the result of being in compliance with the law. The Republicans, at the time, had increased the African American population in already predominantly African American districts, which had upset people because they believed that it was racial gerrymandering. The basis of the argument against opponents revolved around the idea of “one person, one vote.” Coupled with this equality that has been ingrained into society is the Voting Right Acts, more specifically Section Five, which stated that when redistricting, the same number of majority-minority districts was to be maintained along with the...
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...1 The Supreme Court is commonly thought to be "above politics." However, one can argue that the appointment of Supreme Court justices is political. (a) Identify three characteristics of Supreme Court nominees and discuss how each characteristic has been politically relevant during the appointment process. Supreme court justices usually have strong background with experience in the law field. ex) lawyer. Justices need to have strong backgrounds so that congress satisfied with the level of experience, and so the the candidate is fully aware of the great responsibilities they are to position in. It is relevant to the appointment process because presidents nominate based on experience. They must be slow to anger and have a calm temper. Having a clean record is vital to determine if whether...
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...review, the willingness of the Supreme Court to use its powers to significantly change public policy is judicial activism, contrarily, the willingness of the Court to limit the extent of its power in the process of judicial review and avoid making significant changes to public policy is judicial restraint. Certain actions of the Supreme Court demonstrate the use of judicial activism. A looser and more adaptable interpretation of the Constitution is applied in this type of judicial review and the Constitution’s text is not taken literally. Additionally, the Court’s ruling may not align with prior decisions of similar cases, thus stare decisis is not applied. Lastly, judicial activism results in Justices’ enacting change...
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...I chose Frank Murphy primarily for his Supreme Court cases and his involvement with the United States government. Furthermore, he served in World War I and was known as an advocate for individual and Civil rights, which is ironic by his stance in the case of Korematsu v. United States in 1944. He became the mayor of Detroit in 1930 and guided the city through the Great Depression, as well as nominated by President Roosevelt in 1940 to serve on the Supreme Court. Additionally, in the cases of Korematsu v. United States and Wolf v. Colorado individual rights were questioned. I chose Korematsu v. United States because it dealt with the concern of individual rights versus national security. For the majority, it was constitutional to protect a whole...
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...Judiciary Act of 1801. The act allowed for ten new district courts, giving Adams the authority to appoint federal judges and justices of the peace. His purpose was to have the judiciary branch under federalist control before Thomas Jefferson succeeded the office. The commissions were signed by John Adams and sealed by his acting secretary of state John Marshall and are now known as the “midnight appointments”. The senate also approved all appointments made by Adams. Some of the commissions, however, were not delivered before the end of his presidency. When Thomas Jefferson took office, a few commissions were found undelivered. He ordered his secretary of state James...
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