Political Science Inequality, Voting and American Democracy. The American political system has always prevented electoral participation by certain social groups, especially those with the fewest resources. The obstacles to participation have changed over time and today formal barriers to participation have largely disappeared. Nevertheless, voting turnout has declined over the twentieth century, and the poor and less educated continue to vote at a lower rate than those who are wealthier and

Political Science Annotated Bibliography The Purpose of a Political Court In the view of Henry J. Abraham (Abraham 1998, 55), "theoretically," just about any qualified law school graduate with ambitions for an important judicial appointment would appear to have a fair chance at being nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. That is providing, of course, the candidate is politically "available" and is, in Abraham's words, "acceptable to the executive, legislative, and private forces

" The bill then goes on a calendar, so it can be debated, discussed, or amended. The bill then goes to the floor of the house where it is read, discussed, and voted on. If it passes by a two-thirds margin, it goes on to the Senate, where it goes through the same process. If it makes it this far, it is "enrolled," signed by the Speaker of the House

Supreme Court and Public Opinion The Supreme Court of the United States was established in 1789 as part of the basic three sections of the American governmental system: Executive (President and Staff), Legislative (Congress), and Judicial (Supreme Court System). Each U.S. State also has a supreme court, which is the highest law for interpreting cases that move into that jurisdiction. Essentially, the Supreme Court has the ultimate jurisdiction over all federal

The appellate court applied the precedent of Saucier v. Katz (2001), which states the application of the qualified immunity test. According to Saucier, an officer can be stripped of qualified immunity protection only if their conduct violates a constitutional right and every reasonable law enforcement officer would have known that, at the time of the incident, their actions were in violation of the law. Because the road Harris was

The winning side got what it wanted, in part - the continued legality of abortion - but it did not achieve a wider victor in the abortion war. Abortion's opponents were still represented by the dissenting justices. They too, used stare decisis in their opinion, but in a quite opposite fashion, laying open another path to those who might still hope to have abortion removed as a legitimate constitutional