Essay Example on Supreme Court Judgments: Federal Govt. & States Relationship

It has been clearly stated in Article III of the United States Constitution that the Courts of Federal government possess the final jurisdiction in cases that involve laws and the Constitution (Harbison, Audif, and Belz 1983, 49). Hence the judgments made by Supreme Court cannot be interfered with by States. The opinions issued by Courts concerning cases that States were participants in it are significant in the substantive impacts on the relationship between the Federal government and States depending on the direction of the decision whether it supported State sovereignty or lowed. For a decision made by the Supreme Court to be of less impact, cooperation is required from States to honor the decision by embracing the Court decision. On the two cases Garcia v. San Antonio (1985) and West Coast Hotel V. Parrish, the reaction of the States must have been positive as the Court backed them up and supported their sovereignty; while the responses attached to the other case, Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs (2003) must have been decidedly negative especially knowing that the ruling was not granted to the Supreme Court by Constitution. The negative reaction makes the Court suffered a significant repudiation but of low weight due to what Article IV states concerning the ability of the federal court to make a decision, and States have no right deny. The conflicting court decisions cause changes in legitimacy, and alterations in esteem held by States offer Federal government (Yanus, Alixandra and Gray 2017, 279). The effect is felt because the Supreme Court is for the federal government, and when it decides a ruling concerning states and other parties, and then there will be some impact on their relationship.

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The power can be vested in inherent sovereign power which was delegated to the national government. The power has been termed as plenary power, and its existence does not regard any of the grants in the constitution (Yanus, Alixandra and Gray 2017, 281). The Supreme Court has maintained the application of this power and in a situation where the Court takes away sovereignty of States in support of another federal government like congress, it checks the powers that are not in constitution from this plenary power. The history of the source of the power is that it was transmitted from Great Britain during independence to the union of states in the United States then vested to the federal government (Yanus, Alixandra and Gray 2017, 282). The rule of necessity suggests that due to the necessity of the plenary power as exercised by the Supreme Court, the power may be incorporated into the constitution

References

Harbison, Winfred Audif, and Herman Belz. The American Constitution: its origins and development. WW Norton, 1983.

Yanus, Alixandra B., and Virginia H. Gray. "Policy Content on the US Supreme Court: A View from the States." Justice System Journal 38, no. 3 (2017): 277-289. DOI/abs/10.1080/0098261X.2017.1278731