Original Jurisdiction
In Article III, Section 2, Clause 2 the Constitution reads: "In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction."
What this means is that in all cases regarding ambassadors, and other public ministers and consuls, and in all cases in which a State is a party in the case, the federal appellate courts cannot accept the case. Such cases must bypass the federal appellate system, and go straight to the Supreme Court. Since one of those stipulations is in regards to cases "in which a State shall be a Party," that means that the case "U.S. v. Arizona," where the federal government sued Arizona to block the state's immigration law, was unconstitutional filed for the inferior federal courts to hear the case. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction. Therefore, when the district court ruled in July of 2010 on the case, and struck down parts of the Arizona immigration law, not only did that court not have jurisdiction to hear the case in the first place, but the very act of striking down portions of the law was unconstitutional. After all, Article I, Section 1 grants the legislative branch all legislative powers, and those powers would include the ability to strike down law. The courts were not vested with any legislative powers, and therefore cannot strike down laws, or portions of laws.
Learn more at www.coronaconstitutionclass.blogspot.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment