The United States Supreme Court of 2004 essays

The United States Supreme Court of 2004 essays The United States Supreme Court, the highest federal court, is made up of nine judges. The judges are nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate and appointed for life. The Court reviews decisions made by lower courts and its decisions are final after a majority vote. Recently, the Supreme Court ended its term with many controversial and significant decisions. Ruled by a 6-3 vote, the terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts. Ruled by an 8-1 vote, the judges decided that the Bush administration could not detain Yaser Hamdi as an enemy combatant and that Jose Padilla should file his appeal in South Carolina, not New York. Without exactly stating whether "under God" is constitutional, the court ruled 8-0 that the Californian that challenged the oath had no legal authority to speak for his daughter. A turn from the court's usual religious support, the judges decided that states don't have to underwrite the religious training of students who plan to have a career in the ministry. Ruled 5-4, the supreme court forbade a judge in a jury trial to be able to act alone when adding more time to a convicts sentence. The sixth decision protects the current administration by stating that details about the Vice President's energy task force do not have to be revealed until after the election whic h was a "paramount necessity of protecting the executive branch from vexatious litigation." The controversial internet pornography decision ruled that a 1998 law which hid children from accidentally finding porn on the web was probably unconstitutional, which requires more review of the law; this might lead to access codes for adults who want to view the particular material. In the eight rulings, the judges decided 5-4 to allow a 2002 campaign finance law to apply to the 2004 election. It was stated that when rooting out corruption, limitations are placed on the first amendment, free sp...