Revision & Exam Practice for the “legacy” A Level qualifications including:

• Edexcel (Unit 3C – Representative Processes in the USA, Unit 4C – Governing the USA)
• AQA (Unit 3A – The Politics of the USA, Unit 4A – The Government of the USA)
• OCR (F855 – US Government & Politics)

REVISE THE US SUPREME COURT

How to use these questions for revision and exam practice:

1. For short-answer questions, write a 3 paragraph response using the PEEACH paragraph structure (P=point, E=evidence, E=explain, A=argument, C=counter argument, H=how does this answer the question?)
2. Once you have completed your question, read the indicative content and the mark scheme.
3. Complete the “Make It Better” (MIB) Task:
   1. Highlight the parts of the indicative content your were able to fully explain and exemplify in green.
   2. Highlight the parts of the indicative content you partially explained and/or exemplified in yellow.
   3. Highlight the parts of the indicative content which you did not include in red.
4. Using the mark scheme, award yourself a level and a mark – compare this to your target grade – are you on track to achieve this in the examination?
5. There is also a space for you to add additional notes and/or examples that don’t appear in the indicative content, or add better explanations, or include additional, points from the indicative content.

Using examples, explain the limitations on the Supreme Court’s powers. (15)

Indicative Content

Candidates should demonstrate an awareness that judges are limited in their ability to act as policymakers by factors such as:

• Legal process. Judges can only decide matters that are brought to them in the form of legal cases and will not offer advisory opinions.
• Court traditions. Judges only consider cases where their decision will make a real difference i.e. cases in which affect a considerable number of people and it is claimed that considerable harm has been caused.
• Lack of Enforcement Power. President Jackson said, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”. Since, there have been many examples of the Court’s decisions being ignored or actively resisted, such as the refusal by southern States to end racial segregation in the 1950’s and 60’s.
• Public opinion. Striking down New Deal legislation in the 1930’s created the impression that the Judges were out of touch with ordinary people which undermined the Court’s status
• Congress can alter the number of judges on the Court, which was successfully used as a threat when the Court was striking down New Deal legislation in the 1930’s
• Supreme Court judgements can be over-turned by a constitutional amendment eg the 16th Amendment was passed as a result of a Supreme Court declaration that a federal income tax was unconstitutional
• Congress can modify laws which have been declared unconstitutional so that, despite a Supreme court ruling, a law continues to apply in an altered form The President’s power to appoint judges to the Court when there is a vacancy can be seen as a limitation on judicial power, although it does more to shape the direction of the Court than exert limitations.