Federalism/Judicial review
Why is Federalism/Judicial review as important today as it was when the founders wrote the U.S. Constitution?
Significance of judicial review: Law teachers
Judicial review is the ability for legislative and executive actions to be reviewed by the judiciary which may invalidate laws and decisions. The significance of judicial review is "the principles of Judicial Review give effect to the Rule of Law. They ensure that administrative decisions will be taken rationally in accordance with a fair procedure and within the powers conferred by Parliament" (Lord Hoffman). Judicial review is a very important thing in our government today because without it, we could have a ton of unjust laws that the legislative and executive branch can just pass without any review. "Judicial Review is the reassessment of the legality of actions or decisions made by those in position of public authority or bodies" (Law Teachers 1). Another job of the judiciary branch is to make sure the laws that they are passing are legal to pass. "The main purpose of Judicial Review is to ensure that public authorities do not act in excess of their powers" (Law Teachers 1). This means that judicial review makes sure that the government is passing laws and doing everything legally.
Judicial REview: Stephen Haas
Most people in the United States take judicial review for granted, although they don't really know that judicial review is one of the most important characteristics of our government."On an almost daily basis, court decisions come down from around the country striking down state and federal rules as being unconstitutional" (Stephen Haas). That is why judicial review is very important, Judicial review is basically when the judiciary branch checks the laws that the other branches create to make sure they are fair. "Judicial review is the power of the courts to declare that acts of the other branches of government are unconstitutional, and thus unenforceable" (Stephen Haas). This makes the judiciary branch able to regulate which laws the executive and legislative branches can pass or cannot pass. "For example if Congress were to pass a law banning newspapers from printing information about certain political matters, courts would have the authority to rule that this law violates the First Amendment, and is therefore unconstitutional." (Stephen Haas). This helps keep our government from just passing any law that can potentially be unfair to the people of America.
What is Federalism? Why is it important?: Jared C. Clark
On top of separation of powers and judicial review, federalism is also another very important aspect of our country's government. "The division of government powers into state and federal levels is called Federalism, hence the reason why we call our united government a “federal” government, and not a “national” government" (Jared C. Clark). Federalism is where there is a split of power between a bigger government (federal) and various regional governments (states)."Traditionally, the state governments were supreme in their sphere and the federal government was supreme in its sphere" (Jared C. Clark). Therefore the state's power was in control of their own region and the federal government wasn't really on a federal level until later we created a limited federal government in the U.S. Constitution. "This is because the People originally feared a strong central government and viewed a strong central government as inimical to Liberty" (Jared C. Clark). This means that most people were scared to have a federal government because they were scared to be harmed or their liberty to be harmed.