Month: February 2023

Background

The term unconstitutional is something that comes up often, particularly when it comes to the Supreme Court. According to Merrriam-Webster, the term unconstitutional can be defined as , ” not according or consistent with the constitution of a body politic (such as a nation).” In the case of this discussion, it is the Constitution of the United States. The biggest question that many people have is how do you consider something to be unconstitutional, meaning where is and how do you draw that line? This is definitely something difficult, hence why it is the Supreme Court’s sole job to decide that.

 

Supreme Court

Before going into specific examples of this being placed into action, it is important to discuss and provide information on the Supreme Court itself, as without an understanding of this, the rest is irrelevant. The Supreme

Court, as defined by dictionary.com, is “the highest court of the U.S.” The Supreme Court is made up of nine justices, which include eight associate judges and one chief of staff.

When the Supreme Court was first created, they were not really seen as the governing body on difficult court cases. What kind of power did they really have? Marbury vs. Madison is the perfect example. If John Marshall had decided to tell the Madison administration to give Marbury his commission, Madison could just ignore it and demonstrate the lack of power the court truly had. Instead, he had decided that the Judiciary Act of 1789, which is what allowed Marbury to make this ask, was “unconstitutional”, as it extended the courts power further than the constitution stated. This was the creation of judicial review.

 

Recent Example

 

This past year, a perfect example of a case where constitutionality came into effect. The case “West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency” took place in June of 2022. This was all about the Clean Power Plan rule, which dealt with carbon dioxide emissions. It moved from that to the Affordable Clean Energy rule from the EPA. However, the Supreme Court deemed this was unconstitutional, as the EPA was a Federal Agency, and therefore, does not have the authority to do so.

 

Roe v. Wade was a court case that took place back in the 1970’s granting the right to abortions to all states. However, that decision was overturned in 2022 as well. The Supreme Court decided that no where in the constitution does it guarantee a right to privacy, and this right of an abortion was not included in the category of enumerated rights, therefore, a mandatory right of an abortion would be considered “unconstitutional”.

 

Political Aspect

The thought many people have is about how the Court is very political. Presidents, who are the ones who nominate justices, typically pick those of their own party. It is very curious how their political views could not play a part, as they are supposed to be unbiased and strictly look at the Constitution. Certain decisions by certain justices raise questions as to whether or not they actually keep it unbiased.

Many cases end up going to the Supreme Court due to the fact that they are very controversial. That is what makes their job so difficult, as they have to sort out the controversy and keep the Constitution and the betterment of the country in mind.

 

Conclusion

The term unconstitutional has a very basic definition. However, when the topic starts to get discussed, it gets much more complicated. There are layers to it, and controversy tends to be the result. The system put in place has the country’s best interest in mind, however, just like everything else, it is not perfect. It is up to us as a country to help keep that in check by getting involved.

 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unconstitutional

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/supreme-court

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/597/20-1530/