4-18-2013

1) Would you say your satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S fell after the Boston Marathon bombing? My article states that a survey taken by Gallup's Economy and Personal Finance reported 30% of Americans were happy with the way things were going in the U.S directly before the Boston Marathon incident.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/161912/boston-bombings-satisfaction.aspx

H6

a) Judicial Review gives the judiciary the power to review actions of the legislative and executive branches.

b) The power of judicial review allows the supreme court to declare actions of congress or the president unconstitutional. This contributes to the idea of checks and balances because it gives the supreme court the power to monitor the two other branches and make sure they are working within their powers and rights.

c) The losing party in a court case files a "Cert Petition" asking the Supreme Court to review the decision made by the lower court, the Supreme Court then decides whether to hear an appeal from the lower court or not, called a Writ of Certiorari.

d) A stare decisis can have an influence on justices because it basically asks them to leave previous decisions in cases alone. If a case from a lower court is granted a Writ of Certiorari, and the Supreme Court decides to look at the case, then the stare decisis can influence justices to keep the result of the case the same, changing nothing and allowing the case to move on swiftly.
Judicial Activism affects justices because it is suggesting a bias within the courts. If a justice believes something is wrong even though it is not against the law and makes a case decision based on this, then that is an example of judicial activism. Justices are expected to interpret the law, not their opinions, and so judicial activism should be left out of the Supreme Court.

H3

1. a) Three characteristics of Supreme Court nominees are they are usually old aged, well educated and in most cases graduated from an ivy league, and have experience in law.

b) With age comes experience, and experience in law and legal matters is important for a justice to have in his decision making process within the courts. A full education is also important for a justice because it helps qualify the justice for his position and his ability to make decisions on important legal matters, which in some cases may be life or death decisions.

c) Eleanor Kagan was confirmed as a justice partly for her age. At 50 years old, she has plenty of experience and has worked in legal matters for a long enough time to give her the proper qualifications of a justice, however still has many years ahead of her to spend as a justice.

2. a) Two methods used by interest groups to influence the appointment process are they can donate money and endorse certain candidates and rallying support for their views and spreading their opinions through the media.

b) Donations help candidates' campaigns and can give them better chances and opportunities to win the position. Working the media helps gain support for the candidate being publicized the most widely.

c) Interest groups have endorsed Kagan through both donations, such as the ones given by pro choice groups, and coverage through the media.

Antonin Scalia

1) Scalia is one of the most talkative and flamboyant justices, being of italian heritage. He is very traditional and believes in keeping his religious views and intellectual views together as one in his thought process. He is against abortion and gun control and in favor of the death penalty.

2) Scalia believes in the theory of originalism, which most courts don't agree with. Scalia believes that Judges should only interpret the constitution in the meaning that the original framers assigned, giving no room for allowing judges' own interpretations of the constitution.

3) Scalia's "slash and burn" style lost him his opportunities to write for the majority and his shot at chief justice. However, he is still seen as one of the most influential justices, having killed the handgun ban in D.C and resurrecting the second amendment.

G15

a) A Balanced Budget is a budget with revenues equal to expenditures, where neither a budget deficit or budget surplus exist.

b) Federal payments to groups or individuals under government programs that disperse money to people who meet certain criteria.

c) One example of a federal entitlement is Medicare. Federal entitlement programs act as barriers to a balanced budget because they are not limited, and every person who meets the criteria for the programs will be eligible to the entitlements of that program. The only way to decrease the amount of expenditures payed for these programs is to lower the number of people eligible, which is not popular among the public, making it unpopular amongst politicians. Therefore entitlement programs force the government to fund certain projects and pay certain amounts of money, while making no money under the program.

d) A consequence of a large budget deficit is that they can put the country in risk by putting themselves in too much debt.

e) For 2012, our projected revenue was $2.47 trillion, our expenditures were $3.79 trillion our budget deficit was $1.1 Trillion.
http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/US-Government-Federal-Budget-FY2012-Summary.htm

f) The total national debt is 16.533 Trillion, and pending.
http://www.usdebtclock.org

G12

Substance- Obama proposed to raise the minimum wage to $9.00, cut spending and raise taxes on the upperclass, and a shift to cleaner energy.

Style- Obama spoke very confidently and made it clear what his goals for the nation were. He used hand gestures and other body notions to further express his emotions. Obama mentioned numerous people, including the families from New Town Connecticut.

Response- The camera zoomed in on Joe Biden a lot, who was standing behind the president. The media also showed John Boehner and Paul Ryan, both of whom seemed uninterested and in bad moods. Obama received the biggest reaction when he talked about the end of the Afghanistan War and the troops coming home.

G7

1) a. Congress gives agencies policy making discretion because these agencies can have more expertise on certain policies, where as Congress can not be an expert on every policy it makes. Congress covers a broad range of policies while agencies usually cover one specific policy. Another reason Congress does this is to take the blame for any policies gone wrong off of them. If they assign an agency to take control of creating the policies, than they can put all the blame onto these agencies if something goes wrong and the policy isn't taken well by the public.

1) b.

2) a. EPA- Exercises policy making discretion over the Environment and climate.
FCC- Deals with interstate and international communications through forms of media.
Federal Reserve Board- Deals with monetary policies of the United States

2) b. EPA- The EPA announces data through media depicting the differences between healthy water and polluted water in certain areas of the U.S
FCC- This agency can fine television or radio broadcasters for inappropriate remarks, actions or gestures.
Federal Reserve Board- The FRB can change interest rates in banks to help either encourage or discourage investing.

3) Congress decides the bureaucracies budget, so they can make sure the agencies are following their legislative intent and punish them by decreasing their budget if they are not. Congress can also choose to create pieces of legislation so that they are more specific and leave less room for bureaucratic discrepancy.