5 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2024
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    1. lcostigan 30 Oct 2024
      But I have no illusion that any decision by this Court can keep power in the hands ofCongress if it is not wise and timely in meeting its problems. A crisis that challenges thePresident equally, or perhaps primarily, challenges Congress. If not good law, there was worldlywisdom in the maxim attributed to Napoleon that "The tools belong to the man who can usethem." We may say that power to legislate for emergencies belongs in the hands of Congress, butonly Congress itself can prevent power from slipping through its fingers.

      The final sentence of this paragraph felt very impactful to the argument being made. I think it is really difficult to make a hard distinction on what it is okay for a president to do in times of absolute emergency because each situation itself is so nuanced and different. However, that being I think what is being argued is that Congress need to establish itself before their own powers slip away from them in times of distress, which is arguable some of the most important times to serve as a check to the executive powers.

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    1. lcostigan 03 Oct 2024
      Needless to say, an individual'sright to silence in such matters is quite a different thing from the public's interest in freedom ofspeech, and the test applicable to one has little, if anything, to do with the test applicable to theother.

      I honestly just wanted to highlight this, I am having trouble trying to articulate why I think this is important other then I feel like the case could have potentially had a different outcome if it had been argued differently.

    2. lcostigan 03 Oct 2024
      The precise constitutional issue confronting us is whether the Subcommittee's inquiryinto petitioner's past or present membership in the Communist Party transgressed the provisionsof the First Amendment, which, of course, reach and limit congressional investigations.

      I agree with the Court's opinion on this case because asking about participation within politics, in this case specifically, the communist party, is not preventing him from using his first amendment rights, but rather just asking him about his stance. I also think it is a little funny that he argued his freedom of speech and religion (using the first amendment) was being violated instead of that right to not potentially self incriminate. However, I do understand that in doing this it could subject him to public hate, but on some level I think that free speech entails that you can say whatever you want but so can other people.

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  4. Sep 2024
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    Baker v. Carr (1962).pdf
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    1. lcostigan 12 Sep 2024
      Disregard of inherent limits in the effective exercise of the Court's "judicial Power" notonly presages the futility of judicial intervention in the essentially political conflict of forces bywhich the relation between population and representation has time out of mind been, and now is,determined. It may well impair the Court's position as the ultimate organ of "the supreme Law ofthe Land" in that vast range of legal problems, often strongly entangled in popular feeling,

      I think this was a really strong dissenting argument because this decision does allow for the Supreme Court justices to have some influence over how the votes are counted due to redistricting of areas.

    2. lcostigan 12 Sep 2024
      "In determining whether a question falls within [the political question]category, the appropriateness under our system of government of attributing finality to the actionof the political departments and also the lack of satisfactory criteria for a judicial determinationare dominant considerations.

      In context of this question, I am surprised it was deemed that the federal courts were a more viable option than other branches at determining districts, but the other side of the question, the finality of the action makes sense.

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