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Questions tagged [judiciary]

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Questions about those parts of governments which interpret and apply the law. Please use with an appropriate country-tag.

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3
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1answer
203 views

Can John Roberts rule on whether witnesses have to testify in the impeachment inquiry?

It was ruled today that Don McGahn, the former White House counsel, needs to testify in the impeachment inquiry. Like most things, I am guessing that this will probably be appealed, and could end up ...
2
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1answer
427 views

Can a President nominate a US Supreme Court Justice in anticipation of a sitting Justice's demise?

Say a Justice is barely hanging on to her life. Can a president nominate and the Senate confirm a Justice in anticipation of their death? Do they have to wait until the person dies? Can't it be a ...
28
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2answers
5k views

What does it mean that North Carolina's maps were thrown out but new ones weren't ordered drawn?

This article from NBC says this (emphasis mine): A three-judge panel of state judges issued an order Monday barring state officials from using the current map for the coming elections, including ...
5
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1answer
424 views

Has the UK Parliament been successfully sued for passing or doing something deemed unconstitutional?

According to some "extrajudicial" comments by justices in R (Jackson) v Attorney General , e.g.: Lord Hope followed on from Lord Steyn Parliamentary sovereignty is no longer, if it ever ...
3
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3answers
244 views

Conservatism and Executive Power

The Economist cites the philosopher and political theorist Michael Oakeshott to describe conservatism as "To be conservative... is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the ...
3
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1answer
227 views

Can UK supreme court justices be evaluated ideologically?

The Guardian's play by play account of today in UK politics notes that Geoffrey Cox has raised the possibility of parliamentary confirmation of judicial appointments, as is done in the US, because of ...
16
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4answers
5k views

What jurisdiction do Scottish courts have over the Westminster parliament?

What jurisdiction do the Scottish courts have to declare the suspension of the Westminster parliament is illegal? Since the Scots and English legal systems are different, and nobody has suspended the ...
11
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1answer
175 views

What is the nature of the court's oversight of the U.K. Parliament?

A recent BBC article (Judge rejects temporary ban on Parliament shutdown ahead of full hearing) indicates that it is possible for a judge in the U.K. to issue an interdict (“similar to an injunction”) ...
3
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2answers
196 views

Is a state-level legal proceeding against a sitting president any less of a burden on the president?

As contrasted with a federal-level proceeding One of the pillars of the 2000 Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) argument to support the shield of a sitting president against federal indictment is the ...
4
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1answer
144 views

In the United States, how large is the political spread of all federal judges in terms of rulings?

Background I keep hearing about the important role of Federal Judges in the United States and how their rulings as a whole results in them being labeled as a judge with a particular political ...
2
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2answers
142 views

Is it common for judicial branch to add details on laws made by legislative?

In Indonesia, there is an article 112 of drug laws. The article says that simple possession is punished with a minimum of 4 years in prison. This is in contrast with article 128 that says that usage ...
20
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6answers
5k views

In American Politics, why is the Justice Department under the President?

This may sound like an easy question. Legislators make laws, the executive executes laws and the judiciary judges laws. Sounds simple. I've heard that the Justice Department is under the executive ...
4
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1answer
80 views

How do special prosecutors leave their role?

In the US, how do special prosecutors leave their role? Are they appointed for a limited time, do they resign or get fired? I've looked at Mueller's appointment letter but it doesn't mention a ...
10
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3answers
387 views

What limits exist to stop a grand jury being used to persecute a political opponent?

Grand juries are conducted in secret by prosecutors without the oversight of a judge. The reasons for the secrecy of these proceedings have been adequately covered here but I am curious as to what ...
3
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1answer
140 views

Roughly how many US state judges have been charged with obstructing federal justice?

The media reported that a Massachusetts judge was charged with obstructing federal ICE agents after she allegedly let an (illegal) immigrant escape literally through the back door of her court. This ...
2
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2answers
153 views

Is it common in the West for immigration judges to be subordinated to the attorney general (equivalent)?

It's been claimed that The U.S. immigration court system suffers from profound structural problems that have severely eroded both its capacity to deliver just and fair decisions in a timely manner ...
5
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2answers
140 views

Athens Court of Appeal Judgement 2658/79

Looking into the Cyprus problem, I keep running into quotes referencing the Athens Court of Appeal Judgement 2658/79 on March 21 1979. The only legitimate source I could find, which also seems to be ...
21
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3answers
4k views

Why is Grand Jury testimony secret?

I’ve been following US news lately, and am quite confused about something that keeps coming up: why can’t grand jury testimony be released? William Barr and others keep mentioning that a lot of the ...
2
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0answers
98 views

How are subpoena'd documents physically created?

I just wondered about the mechanics of how documents requested by subpoena or by congressional inquiry (eg Nadler's current request for Trump-related files from various agencies) are physically ...
3
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2answers
214 views

Why was SNC-Lavalin not offered a remediation agreement?

Recently, the government of Justin Trudeau in Canada has faced a scandal concerning political interference in the corruption prosecution of the Quebec construction company SNC-Lavalin. Prosecutors ...
3
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1answer
79 views

Press conference by SC judges

Is the historic press conference by four senior-most SC judges a sign of government interference in the workings of the judiciary? References - https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/supreme-...
3
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2answers
629 views

Will the government shutdown impact federal courts?

The US government is currently partially shut down. Will the government shutdown impact federal courts or slow process on new matters filed in federal court?
-1
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1answer
174 views

Does President Trump's sister still draw a federal salary?

Maryanne Trump Barry was appointed as a federal judge to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in 1983, and elevated to its appeals court in 1999. She took senior status in 2011 and ...
3
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3answers
283 views

Instead of proposing a “dialogic process” for judicial review, why doesn't Mark Tushnet want to amend the Constitution as necessary?

In a recent Vox.com interview with Harvard legal scholar Mark Tushnet, Dr. Tushnet presented his ideas to journalist Sean Illing: Sean Illing How unusual is it for a liberal democratic system ...
3
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0answers
150 views

Are there some studies which measure the level of politicization of courts in a trans-Atlantic perspective?

It's easy enough to find a Europe-only comparative perspective on the politicization of the judiciary, e.g. Werkmann (2017): The authors measured the level of politicization in each country ...
4
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2answers
2k views

Judges appointment mechanisms

What are the common/main mechanisms to appoint judges in different western countries? How is the head of the judiciary system elected?
5
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2answers
172 views

Are there any studies of comparative biases in adversarial and inquisitorial legal systems?

In the present-day, different liberal democracies use the adversarial and inquisitorial legal systems (e.g., the U.S. and France, respectively). Have there been any comparative studies of whether ...
10
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1answer
503 views

Entire court impeached

The West Virginia House Judiciary Committee has voted to impeach the entire West Virginia Supreme Court. This vote means that it will go to the WV house floor for impeachment consideration. Here's ...
3
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1answer
282 views

What happens if administration doesn't meet the deadline to reunify families?

On June 27 federal judge Dana Sabraw ordered that the Trump administration had to reunify the families that were separated when they tried to enter the US. Children under 5 had to be returned to their ...
2
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1answer
146 views

Can a large number of federal judges be confirmed at once in the US Senate?

President Trump has nominated many federal judges for Senate confirmation. As this list from Wikipedia shows, there is a huge backlog of judiciary nominations. For instance, only 20 judiciary ...
1
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2answers
277 views

Can the United States Federal Government alter the Criminal Justice System [closed]

Question I was wondering whether or not the phrase/sentence/claim/statement: "The United States Federal Government ought to alter the Criminal Justice System" be hypothetically feasible? To clarify,...
3
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1answer
139 views

Impeachment of judges

What is the procedure when a judge is to be impeached by Congress? Is there a rule on the percentage of votes required when Congress votes?
2
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0answers
146 views

Why are the EU and Media so against Poland's court reforms, when other countries have similar systems [duplicate]

Following on from this this question - There is a lot of resistance from the EU and the mainstream media to Poland's proposed changes to the way Judges are selected. As I understand it, the current ...
4
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2answers
6k views

How often are US federal judges appointed who have never tried a case?

As brought up in this question, there appears to be a growing group of headlines tonight focusing on the fact that someone who has never tried a case is being nominated for federal judge. I know very ...
1
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1answer
161 views

In US law, what means are there to block a nominee approved by the Senate to become a District Judge?

This is about the nomination of Brett Joseph Talley to the position of District Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. According to this article in the Los ...
3
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3answers
633 views

How do democracies maintain the independence of judiciary? [closed]

While a constitutional democracy requires an independent judiciary, the same cannot be elected by popular vote. One possible way is that the Executive head would appoint and promote the judges, but ...
20
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3answers
2k views

How does the judicial independence in Poland after the reforms compare to other EU countries?

There have been a lot of talks recently about the erosion of judicial independence in Poland after the new government has decided to change the way judges are nominated. However to me (as a Czech ...
8
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2answers
2k views

Why do countries maintain a Ministry of Justice?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_ministry Why isn't having a Judiciary enough? Why do countries maintain a Ministry of Justice?
23
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2answers
11k views

What exactly did the federal judge do to Trump's executive order?

Source: The Hill U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly ruled in favor of a habeas corpus petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of two Iraqi men who were ...
3
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1answer
97 views

Why is driver's test privatization in purvue of Israel's Supreme Court?

So this minor news article ("High Court order against privatization of driving tests") caught my attention, by the fact that it seems like such a strange and insignificant topic to rise to Supreme ...
6
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2answers
1k views

If judges are supposed to be impartial, why are some elected if that risks them having biases towards their constituents?

It is my understanding that US judges are supposed to be impartial. Indeed, a common symbol of the justice system is Lady Justice wearing a blindfold as a symbol of this ideal. There are a number of ...
14
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2answers
391 views

Judicial Independence in Turkey

In the aftermath of the failed coup in Turkey nearly 3000 judges were "sacked" among them two members of the constitutional court (source for example this Washington Post article) as well as many ...
31
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2answers
6k views

Why were 2745 judges dismissed in Turkey?

According to the BBC at least 2,745 judges have been dismissed in Turkey, following the recent failed coup d'état attempt. Why? How were these judges involved in the coup attempt? And if they were ...
2
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2answers
652 views

How do proponents of the “Living Constitution” view respond to the argument that it undermines democracy?

Those who reject originalism as a judicial philosophy generally say that the Constitution is a "living document" which changes in meaning as society changes. Further, they believe that the Supreme ...
4
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1answer
658 views

US Courts of Appeals - What are the roles of the Circuit Justices?

I was reading the Wikipedia page for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit when I noticed that a "Circuit Justice" (in this case, Ruth Bader Ginsburg) was mentioned. I then found the page ...
10
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1answer
178 views

When a U.S. administration decides to do a prisoner swap with another country, how does the US judicial system handle the request?

What are the mechanisms that are in play, for example in the recent swap of prisoners for the American citizens that were held in Iran? Is it a presidential pardon? Or is there some other ...
10
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1answer
2k views

Majority Opinion of Supreme Court cases

I am learning about US Government and the Judicial Branch. According to my course lesson, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will write the majority opinion if he is part of the majority or assign ...
7
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1answer
214 views

When courts draw maps, do they gerrymander?

It's well known that when legislatures draw maps, the majority protects members of their own party. When courts do maps, do they do the same thing? If so, what are some modern-day examples where a ...
1
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2answers
299 views

If judges are appointed, why should law makers be elected? [closed]

I'm from the UK. I think the following reasons are why we appoint judges instead of electing them: Appointed judges make decisions that are more independent and unbiased, because they only care about ...
11
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2answers
3k views

What is the percent of Police Officers that are indicted by a Grand Jury?

In light of the Eric Gardner and Micheal Brown Grand Jury outcomes. I wanted to know what % of Police Officers are actually indicted by a Grand Jury. I found some interesting charts that may give ...

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