Liberal or Conservative minds in the Supreme Court, does it matter?

It really does matter if a Supreme Court Justice is conservative or liberal. The Supreme Court justices aren't suppose to be influenced by their own views. They are supposed to strictly interpret the constitution. However, they are human, and their own values tend to influence their decisions. This is why it matters so much if they are conservative or liberal. What if Congress and the President pass a law that gay people could marry? If someone challenged this law all the way to the Supreme Court, they would have to decide if it was constitutional or not. If the Supreme Court justices are mostly conservative they could vote that it was unconstitutional. Their job is to give a voice to the Constitution, not use their own to make decisions that they want to see happen. What if one of the laws said that people who were taller than 6 feet got a tax cut and all of the Justices were taller than that. They could use their power to say it was constitutional because it benefits them. How can we make sure their making their decision based on the constitutions and not their own views? How can we make sure that the Supreme Court justices don't use THEIR views to make their decisions just the constitution's? How is that fair for the people? Do they have too much power?

The Six Princibles of Government

There are 6 key principles of the government.
1. Popular Sovereignty
2. Limited Government
3. Separation of Powers
4. Checks and Balances
5. Judicial Review
6. Federalism
We read an article to try and find information about these principles and how they work in out government. The first principle, popular sovereignty, basically means that by popular vote the government can do things, like make a law or have a presidential candidate. The second, Limited government, means that the government wants to make sure we have the most liberty that we can with out them interfering with our freedoms while still maintaining order. The third, separation of powers, and fourth, checks and balances, really go hand and hand. The government is divided into branches, with an amount of power and responsibility. The usual divisions are into executive, a legislator and a judiciary. This makes sure that neither of the sections has more power than the others and they keep each other in check and in balance. This also falls into the fourth principle, judicial review, is basically the supreme court in our government. If the people pass a law, for example, that gay people couldn't get a job it would be sent to the supreme court to be reviewed and they would say no because it violates the Constitution. They have to make sure that each law that the people pass make sure that it doesn't violate any one's right under the Constitution. Which kinda flows into the last principle, federalism. Federalism is basically a Constitution and the president. To have federalism you have to have laws or rules to abide by and a leader, that doesn't really make the rules but just runs things. So, that's what makes out government run and work. I was reading some of the amendments that people are going to vote on and one caught my eye. It was about abortion, so if that is a really touchy subject with you, don't go any farther. It said that abortion should be illegal because it was violating the right of the under developed-human to live. My question was, is it really human yet? What qualifies as human? Should that really something people can argue over, weather this fetus is a human yet or not. It was just really odd how the government can use that to make abortion illegal, should they be able to do that?

What is Democracy?

Today in our Humanities class we were discussing what we think a democracy was and we used quotes to gather ideas. We also read an article about democracy and what other people think it is. A quote that caught my attention was by Abraham Lincoln " Democracy is a government of the people, by the people, for the people." I thought that was a pretty good way to put it. It also said that it was majority rules and minority rights. Which means that Majority rules, but it can't be anything that violates Minority rights. Which made me come to a question What about Gay people? They want to get married and their right are being violated to not be able to get married, what makes that different? Why doesn't that law cover them?