this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
339 points (98.0% liked)

politics

19097 readers
2931 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Judges have the authority to apply the law.

When two laws are in the books that happen to contradict each other - which they often do - judges need a method to determine which law to apply and which to ignore. They can't apply contradictory laws simultaneously. It's not some special authority. It's simple logic.

Nothing in the Constitution says "When a new law directly contradicts an older one, apply the newer one and ignore the older one." Judges could ignore the newer law, but they have wisely decided that in those circumstances they will ignore the older law.

Nothing in the Constitution says "When a law directly contradicts the Constitution, apply the Constitution and ignore the law." Nor does the Constitution say "When a law directly contradicts the Constitution, apply the law and ignore the Constitution." But judges must choose one or the other.

In other words, at times judges either must ignore the law or must ignore the Constitution. Again, this is not some special authority, it's simple logic. In those circumstances judges consistently choose to ignore the law.

"Judicial review" is nothing more than a judge ignoring a law. Because if they can't ignore that law, then they must ignore the Constitution. So what you're really asking is "Why are judges always required to obey the Constitution?" But that's the same as asking "Can anything give judges the power to ignore the Constitution?"