The appellate process at the Supreme Court: Step 4

Question 1

What are the different tools that Justices use to make decisions?

Answer 1

-Constitution
-Federal law
-Oral argument (not as important)
-Precedent
-Judicial philosophy
-Consequence (how is their decisions going to affect the country)

Question 2

What are the judicial philosophies that we discussed? (two major philosophies)

Answer 2

Originalism- (Textualism)- words in the constitution are static (unchanging)(stay the same)
-the meaning of the words do not change

Evolutionism- (living constitutionalism)
-words in the Constitution should be understood the way we do today (modernized)

Question 3

What is precedent?

Answer 3

Using Previous cases to answer current cases