Week 6 Lesson: The Executive Branch and The Courts
Table of Contents
The Executive Branch
The Executive Branch is the largest branch of our national government. There are three parts of the executive branch, the Executive Office of the President, the executive departments, and the independent agencies. Article II of the U.S. Constitution gives the executive branch the power to enforce laws. In turn, the president must enforce the laws of the government, but the president must be careful to not overstep authority or take over responsibilities that belong to Congress or the courts. This process is called checks and balances.
The executive branch is an organization of non-elected government workers who make official decisions. In laymen terms, it means, we as citizens do not vote for the government workers. In fact, a number are appointed by the president such as federal posts and members of government agencies.
Bureaucracy
The executive branch is complicated, and most ordinary citizens tend to ignore it. Think about it, the word bureaucracy to us means red tape, waste, and delay, delay, delay. After all, we hear about the executive branch in disparaging terms at times.
Did you know that bureaucrats used red ribbon in Britain to hold their files together, hence the term: red tape. Today this term is used to describe delays or paperwork in the bureaucracy
Yet, as stated earlier, the executive branch plays an important part in our everyday lives. In fact, bureaucracies execute federal laws made by Congress and create the policies that impact us as American citizens. Here are a few examples on how bureaucracies effect our daily lives:
Effects of Executive Branch
Can you think of some important aspect of your life that is affected by the executive branch?
View Answer
Organization of the Executive Branch:
The federal bureaucracy is officially a part of the executive branch of the United States government. It employs millions of people both civilian workers and the armed forces. There are over 60 independent agencies and a huge Executive Office of the President. Each department also has many agencies and bureaus associated with it. Thus, in order to understand the federal bureaucracy, we need to organize it in order:
1. Cabinet-level secretaries
2. Subdivisions – Bureaus and agencies
3. Foundations
The list of current cabinet members is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet.Links to an external site.
Cabinet-level secretaries
Let’s start with the cabinet – level secretaries:
Cabinet level secretaries oversee the many departments. They handle the essential government functions with the first three essentials being war, treasury, and state. They are the major service organizations of the federal government and they are chosen by the president, and approved by the Senate. Each department is held by a secretary except for the Justice Department that is held by the attorney general. Below the departments are the agencies.
Agencies
Agencies Transcript
Foundations
Foundations are meant to be separate from government, in order to safeguard the political facets of government. Some examples of foundations include the National Science Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and The National Endowment for Humanities.
The bureaucracy has grown leaps and bounds in part due to advances in technology and increases in size of the population. With the enormous growth in the bureaucracy different resources of power are needed. The following presentation walks you through some of the power in federal bureaucracy.
Bureaucracy and Power Transcript
The federal bureaucracy faces many controversies and challenges such as serving a public that does not trust the bureaucrats. Even though, the executive branch is ignored at times, when a crisis happens citizens will get involved. For example, if the post office is not working efficiently or there are issues with Social Security. Another issue is the federal bureaucracy has two bosses, Congress and the president, who are constantly challenging each other for control of the agencies, especially when implementing public policy. Therefore, at times, it takes a long time for a public policy to be implemented.
Yet, reforming the federal bureaucracy depends on how we feel as citizens concerning the size and power of this huge organization. Many citizens feel the size of the government is just too large, which causes waste and bloat, while others feel we need to outsource the bureaucracy. There are different approaches to reforming the bureaucracy.
Reduce the size of the federal government (cutting the fat)
Contract out some of the functions of government and give the functions to private businesses (privatization)
We could reduce the size of the government, but that raises the issue of what agency do we cut? The second question is do we trust private businesses any more than we trust our federal government and what do we as citizens gain with a government running itself like a business? What about checks and balances? Federal employees are not voted on by everyday American citizens so concern would be, who is watching the employees in a business? There are so many questions to be answered and evaluated before we step from one large executive branch to one or several large private businesses.
Courts
The courts play a very important role in American democracy. They make important decisions that impact the governance and lives of the citizens. Let’s start off with some examples of important decisions the courts have made over the years, and then explore the details of how they are organized.
In June 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States became involved in two controversial court cases, one on health care reform, Affordable Care Act and one on immigration policy which involved a controversial immigration law passed by the state of Arizona. The Supreme Court would end up ruling in favor of national law concerning the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court immigration case, Arizona v. United States (2012), struck down three parts of Arizona’s immigration law showing a compromise between conservatives and liberals. Arizona state immigration laws did not surpass national law but instead showed that there could be a compromise between national and state laws. It also showed that the Supreme Court can at times be political to involve conflict and compromise. For example in the Affordable Health Care Act case, which instituted an individual mandate that required people to get insurance. On top of the two cases, the Supreme Court had already scheduled the 2012-2013 cases on affirmative action in higher education, same-sex marriage, and the Voting Rights Act.
The cases discussed above became political because it was an election year, and they were extremely controversial. In these two cases, many people wondered if it became political also for the judges because it was an election year and tensions were rising over the fact that these two cases were so divisive, especially when mandates were involved. Judges do have their own political views, after all, they are human. At the same time, it is difficult but necessary for Supreme Court judges to keep their beliefs at the door when deciding cases. The Supreme Court’s rulings must be based on the United States Constitution.
Case in point, Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was another landmark case. This case involved ending racial division in the public-school systems. In this case, the plaintiffs stated that the educational facilities for black students were not “separate but equal” to those for white students. The Supreme Court would rule that segregation went against the constitutional rights of black students under the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment. This case would make it possible for black Americans to continue to fight for equal rights.
Organization of the Judicial System
Our judicial system is organized in a step by step process where eventually, many of the landmark cases will end up in the highest court in the United States, the Supreme Court. These landmark cases have made and continue to make a huge impact in our country. To understand the way our courts work, we need to go through the step process.
The Federal Courts
The federal court system consists of three levels of courts, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and the district courts.
The Federal Courts
Federal Courts Accordion Transcript
The Supreme Court Justices
Article III of the Constitution discusses the Judicial Branch. It gives Congress discretion to determine the structure of the federal judiciary. Even the number of the Supreme Court Justices is left to Congress. The Constitution also grants Congress the right to establish courts that are lower than the Supreme Court. Federal judges can only be removed by impeachment by the House of Representatives and a Senate trial. Even though the Constitution does not discuss the number of Justices concerning the Supreme Court, the number is set by Congress and for the time being, the Supreme Court has nine judges. In our past history, there has been a balance between the judges with usually four conservatives, four liberals, and one moderate. There are times when the shift leans more to the left than the right and vice versa.
The appointment of federal judges causes conflict between presidents and their political rivals. For example, during President Trump’s presidency, he appointed three judges,
Neil Gorsuch who took the place of Antonin Scalia
Brett Kavanaugh who took the place of Anthony Kennedy
Amy Coney Barrett who took the place of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
This caused contention between the Democrats and Republicans due to the fact that when Amy Coney Barrett was appointed, an election for the presidency was less than a month away but per the Constitution, President Trump was still in office and could still nominate a Supreme Court Justice. The argument would be that out of courtesy, the president should wait until after reelection. Concerning appointees, President George Washington would hold the record for the most Supreme Court nominations. He would nominate 14 judges with 12 of them reaching confirmation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President John Tyler would hold second place with nine nominations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would appoint all nine whereas President Tyler would only appoint one.
Presidents usually select judges who share their political viewpoints, and they almost always appoint members of their own party to the federal courts. Also, most of the federal judges have held some political office before being appointed to the federal bench. Historically, most Supreme Court justices have been federal or state court justices. Although Supreme Court justices have different views of the law, the Constitution, and their interpretation, the justices all share a common background concerning education at some of the nation’s prestigious law schools and they all have judicial experience even though the Constitution does not specify they have to be attorneys. Since Justices do not have to run for re-election, they are insulated from political pressure when deciding cases. Justices may remain in office until they resign, pass away, or are impeached and convicted by Congress.
Rules and Norms of Supreme Court Justices
Seniority
Justices sit in order of seniority when hearing cases with the chief justice sitting in the center and the senior justice on the immediate right, and the junior justice sits on the far left.
While the justices are deliberating, justices speak and vote in order of seniority.
By tradition, the junior justice performs any menial tasks, such as answering the door of the conference room, serving coffee, and transmitting orders of the Court to the clerk.
Secrecy
The conference room meetings are closed, and justices are not allowed to discuss the proceedings outside the conference room.
The Supreme Court In Action
Courts and the States
In the United States, systems of courts have been established both by the federal government and by the governments of the individual states. Each state has at least one trial and one appellate court. The distinction between state and local courts is that they are authorized to hear cases involving the laws and citizens of their state or city, while federal courts decide lawsuits between citizens of different states. Most of the court cases are heard in the state courts. In fact, the majority of criminal cases involve violations of state laws prohibiting acts such as murder, robbery, fraud, theft, and assault. In each state constitution, there is a set of laws with most of the laws comparable with all states. For example, murder and robberies are illegal in all states, although the range of possible punishments vary from state to state. Another example would be prostitution; it is legal in some Nevada counties, although it is outlawed in most states. In the case of contract law, most states have adopted the Uniform Commercial Code to reduce interstate differences. However, in areas such as family law that covers divorce and child custody decisions, state laws vary. Each state constitution discusses its judicial department in detail.
Review your state constitution and see how state constitutions differ from the federal constitution when it comes to the court system. State constitutions tend to be longer and more detailed in comparison. State constitutions are open to the public so you can go online and read the details of your state’s courts.
Adversarial System
Many people assume our political system is like other political systems around the world, but democratic political systems are different. The United States judiciary is organized as an adversarial (argumentative) system. Under this system, competing parties (prosecuting and defense attorneys) make their cases to a jury while the judge makes sure that the process continues properly. The role of the judge is to make sure the trial is fair. The United States and other common law jurisdictions rely on adversarial systems.
In contrast, an inquisitorial (interrogative) system, which is used in most civil law jurisdictions, the judge is involved in the investigation of facts. The judge at times, will ask the witnesses questions and can call witnesses. The primary role of the judge in an inquisitorial is to make sure the truth is reached. The French legal system and other civil law jurisdictions are inquisitorial systems.
In present day, the courts are struggling with more caseloads in the federal courts. This often puts a burden on prosecutors and judges. Civil suits and criminal cases have increased, especially since Congress decided to make drug related crimes federal offenses. Regardless, the number of cases in the Supreme Court has remained stable with a little over one hundred cases a year. To help carry the burden, clerks help the agenda run more smoothly by making sure the case is real and not a hypothetical case. Next, the case must have a standing—people must be directly interested in the case. Finally, the court will hear a case only if at least four justices are interested in hearing the case. This is called the Rule of Four.”
The court system handles controversial cases such as abortion rights and gun control. Many times, justices can be swayed to an extent as stated earlier in the lecture when it comes to controversial cases. Public opinion, liberal and conservative blocs, presidential influence, and interest groups all at times can influence a verdict. There are instances where justices have swayed from a more liberal side to a conservative side and vice versa especially when listening to public opinion. The one area the Supreme Court and lower courts will not sway from is the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court is to follow the Constitution when deciding a case.
Reveiw the following terms and definitions.
Terms and Definitions Transcript
Summary
It is virtually impossible to go a day without using the federal bureaucracy. For example, when you collect your mail that is delivered by federal employees, you are using the federal bureaucracy. As citizens, we may see the bureaucracy as ineffective and too large, but the federal bureaucracy usually does run smoothly. Checks and balances help to ensure that the bureaucracy is effective so that the federal executives do not go astray concerning American lives and welfare. The Supreme Court plays an important role in checks and balances, and in adjudicating cases as the apex court in the United States. However, it too is a part of the federal judiciary system. Congress stipulates the number of Supreme Court justices. All justices are nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and do not need to run for election. This, to some degree, shields them from external political pressures and influence when ruling on cases. Article III of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that every person that is accused of wrongdoing has the right to trial by a jury. As American citizens, we need to have an executive branch and a court system that protects us and guarantees us our rights as American citizens.
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