Are progressive and needed to correct past errors o

are progressive and needed to correct past errors
o The 10
th
amendment: powers not specifically said in federal
documents should be up to the states. Conservatives say that
everything not mentioned is indeed up to the states; liberals say it is
not ideal that the founders were supposed to know all the laws we
need now
● Balance of power is very important
2.Judicial Review
● The authority the SC has to review any law to determine whether a law is
constitutional
● law against burning American Flag during protest:
o dallas man burns flag in protest
o arrested in texas
o took case to supreme court
o ruled that it violates free speech to make burning the flag an illegal
crime
● If you don’t like the supreme courts decision …
1. wait until there is an unbalance of power
2. amend the constitution
a. 2/3 of House on board
b. 2/3 of Senate on board too
c. 3/4 of the States (38 out of 50)
3. FDR’s court packing plan
a. He was trying to fix the economy (great depression) so
implemented many programs but the SC at the time had a 6:3
conservative control and made it very difficult to make anything
happen
b. 1937- a certain fireside radio chat he announced the Court Packing
plan; “very concerned about aging SC justices”; “concerned about
workload”; suggests that an associate junior justice should be
appointed for each justice over 70 (constitution does not specify
how many there are supposed to be)
c. Basically threatens to flood the court with liberal associates
d. Two of the conservative justices flipped their vote and FDR got
some of his plans implemented
e. By the end of FDR’s terms, 8 of the 9 justices were liberal
3. Burton Case- Burton v. Willington 1961
● Racism case- would not serve black man in a restaurant
● Burton could only build his case off the constitutional law of equal protection
since there was not much discrimination law at this time; but the restaurant

was a private entity so his lawyers weren’t confident
● When do constitutional rights apply in the first place?
1. If the government does something to you you’ll have a pretty good
case; If someone or something does something unconstitutional, it is
much more likely- “the constitution was created to protect people
from the government, not other people”
2. State action doctrine; if it applies you might have case. If you have
money or benefit going directly from the government to a private
entity. The restaurant owner was being given a lot of freebies from the
government so it applied to burtons case
4. Due Process
● You have been treated wrongfully by the government
● Two types: two bc of lots of old laws have been interpreted many different
ways
1. Procedural
a. When the gov’t is going to take away life, liberty or property then
they must abide by procedural DP
2. Substitutive
a. A more vague constitutional right, the notion that you can
challenge the substance of any government action on fairness
ground
b. The substance of this law is so fundamentally unfair that it cannot
possibly go along with the 5 th