Is the Judiciary Branch a despotic branch?

Essay by stormcloud888Junior High, 8th gradeA, April 2009

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John Marshall decided a case that increased the power of the Supreme Court. The case involved William Marbury, a judge appointed by Adams on his last night as President. Republicans refused to accept this "midnight judge" and Jefferson ordered the Secretary of State James, Madison, not to deliver the papers confirming Marbury's appointment. Marbury sued Madison it was referred as Marbury v. Madison. The Supreme Court ruled against Marbury but it set an important precedent. It gave the Supreme Court the power to decide whether laws passed by congress were constitutional and to reject laws that it considered to be unconstitutional known as the judicial review. This raised Jefferson's concern that the court and Judiciary branch have too much power, making it a despotic branch.

"The Constitution...is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please.", noted Thomas Jefferson.

The Constitution continues to suffer assault from Supreme Court as they again interpret the so called "living Constitution" as a method of altering that venerable document with judicial decisions. As they overturned the laws of states and the Constitution, the court pushes the nation one step closer toward a government in to a degenerative form. In the 1973 decision, the Supremes discovered a right of privacy that allowed the aborting of children, despite the fact that all 50 states had laws either prohibiting or tightly regulating abortion. In a recent case, it was discovered that there is a clause in the Constitution specifically stating that a 14-year-old is mature enough to abort the life of her child without parental consent. Now, in Roper v. Simmons, they've decided that a 17-year-old isnot mature enough to be held accountable for capital murder even with the stated clause in the Constitution.