Eléments de civilisation - Retour DM PT V

1) Understanding the working of the Supreme Court

Script: script-video-1.pdf (69.09 Ko)

The Structure of the US Supreme Court today: fiche-eleve-structure.pdf (137.39 Ko)

2) What needs to be understood at this point:

- The US Supreme Court is composed of 9 Justices that are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. It means that their appointment is highly political and the ideology of the Supreme Court depends on the political color of the Justices. During his term, Donald Trump appointed 3 Conservative Justices, thus possibly changing the ideological color of the Court for the years to come.

- The role of the Supreme Court is to rule the disputes over whether or not laws and lower courts' decisions are constitutional. But with the doctrine of "selective incorporation", according to which the Supreme Court decides which parts of the amendments of the Constitution apply to the laws, it gives great room for personal interpretation. Hence the importance of the political color of the Justices that might have a strong impact on the protection of individual rights garanteed by the Bill of Rights.

3) The stakes of the last Supreme Court nomination: from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Amy Coney Barrett

Script: script-video-2.pdf (51.9 Ko)

Articles on the stakes of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett: amy-coney-barrett-press-releases.pdf (104 Ko)

4) Sujet de synthèse: Why reform the Supreme Court?

synthese-supreme-court.pdf (1.19 Mo)

tableau-synoptique-supreme-court-1.pdf (73.68 Ko)