H6

(a) Define judicial review.

Judicial review is the act in which the Supreme Court looks over legislative acts to check if they are constitutional or not.
(b) Explain how judicial review empowers the Supreme Court within the system of checks and balances.

 Judicial review empowers the Supreme Court by allowing them to bring down a law proposed by Congress if it goes against the Constitution. This gives them power because, although Congress creates the laws, if a majority of the justices say a bill is unconstitutional, it will not be able to become law. The same goes for an executive act, the Supreme Court can stop any of the president's acts from occurring.
(c) Describe the process through which the Court grants a writ of certiorari.

Writ of certiori is when the Supreme Court decides to receive information on a case from a lower court. These cases come through a petition filed with the Supreme court, it comes with an explanation of why the case should be heard by the Supreme Court. If five out of the nine justices agree to hear the case, the Supreme Court will hear the case.

(d) Explain how each of the following influences decisions made by individual justices when deciding casesheard by the Court.

Stare decisis: Stare decisis is the policy that courts abide by in which they must follow all the priniciples established by precedents (earlier rulings). So if there was a case about a child being allowed to wear a shirt with obscenities on it and a judge said that he can't do that, another judge with a similar case would probably rule the same.

Judicial activism: Judicial activism is when a judge makes a ruling due to personal or political consideration rather than on existing laws. A more liberal justice could make a ruling about a case saying that all gay people have rights because all men are created equal. By making this ruling, the justice has practiced judicial activism because he/she probably did it because he/she thought it would be best for the country.

H4

(a) Identify three characteristics of Supreme Court nominees.

Three characteristics are ideology, age, and sex.

(b) Discuss how each characteristic has been politically relevant during the appointment process. 

When a president nominates a justice, he typically chooses one with the same ideology as him. If the president is conservative, he will most likely pick a conservative justice.

Age is an important factor in nominating a justice because the older a nominee is, the more experience he/she has and the more rulings that can be seen from their history.

Sex is another important characteristic. The sex of the justice can give new perspective on a case. If there are already 8 men on the court, it's best to include a woman for a different perspective.

(c) USE real facts from the confirmation of Elena Kagan to illustrate at least ONE of these characteristics.

Obama chose Kagan because he "wanted someone who could counter the court's conservative leaders." So he chose her because she was liberal, like him.

2.

(a) Identify two methods that have been used by interest groups to influence the appointment process. 

Interest groups use donations and smear campaigns to influence the appointment process.

(b) Explain how each of these methods has been used to influence that process.

By donating money, interest groups are endorsing a candidate, and more money means  a bigger chance of winning an election. Smear campaign are campaigns that ruin the reputation of a candidate or make them look bad to the people, this lessens their chance of winning.

(c) USE real facts from the confirmation of Elena Kagan to illustrate at least ONE of these methods.

H1

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
1.) Sotomayor is an advocate for minority rights
2.) Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina on the Supreme Court
3.)Sotomayor rejected a claim by a New Yorker who said his 2nd amendment right was being violated.

G15

Many people are concerned about large deficits in the federal budget. Rarely does the government balance its budget.

(a) Define balanced budget.

Balanced budget means that the amount of expenditure is the same as the amount of revenue, that there is no deficit or surplus.

(b) Define federal entitlements.

Federal entitlements are federal payments to a specific group of people that is mandatory and or legally obligated to be dispersed to these people under certain criteria.

(c) Identify an entitlement and explain how entitlements are a barrier to the federal government achieving a balanced budget.

An entitlement would be receiving social security checks. Entitlements are a barrier to the federal government achieving a balanced budget in that they are money promised by the government, money that must be given to the people or else the government would be breaking its own laws by not giving it out because it's permanent.

(d) Describe a consequence of large budget deficits.

A budget deficit is when the amount of expenditures exceeds the amount of revenue. A consequence of large budget deficits is that it makes it hard for the government to create new policies because it is too busy trying to fix or compensate for the policies it already created.

(e) Find the most recent budget numbers. What was our projected revenue for 2012? What were our expenditures? What was the budget deficit? Cite your source.

Our revenue was 5.4 trillion dollars and the expenditures was 6.1 trillion, so the deficit was  0.7 trillion dollars.

http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/total_revenue_2013USrn
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/.

(f) What is the total national debt? Cite your source.

The total national debt is $17,467,228,205,267

http://www.concordcoalition.org/issues/indicators/us-total-national-debt