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“No Constitution is the same on Paper and in Life,” wrote Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, who penned the Constitution’s final draft. Morris meant that words on paper do not change, but life does. The world changes.
For example, the framers couldn’t imagine television or the Internet. How should freedom of the press be applied to those media? The nine justices of the Supreme Court have the job of interpreting the Constitution in a changing world. They decide if acts of Congress and the president are allowed by the Constitution. This is called judicial review.
John Marshall served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 until his death in 1835.
◀ In 1803, the Supreme Court heard the case of Marbury v. Madison. In essence, it concerned Marbury’s claim that he had been cheated out of his appointment as a federal judge. The court didn’t rule on his claim. Rather, it ruled that the law under which the case was tried was unconstitutional. This was the first time that the Supreme Court claimed the right of judicial review.
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Has anyone ever served as both the president of the United States and chief justice of the Supreme Court?
William Howard Taft is the only person to have served as both. He was president from 1909–1913 and chief justice from 1921–1930.
◀ Dred Scott was an enslaved man. His owner took him to free territory, where slavery was not allowed. He lived there for five years. At the end of the time, Scott was returned to a state that allowed slavery. Scott sued for his freedom. He claimed that he became free when he left a slave-holding state. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that, as a slave, Scott was not a citizen and could not use the federal courts. Therefore, he was still enslaved. The ruling outraged those who were against slavery.
▲ Gold was discovered on Cherokee land. So Georgia gave Cherokee land to white settlers. The Cherokees sued in federal court. In 1832, the Supreme Court upheld their claim to their land. However, President Andrew Jackson refused to carry out the court’s ruling. Jackson said, “[Chief Justice] John Marshall has rendered his decision. Now let him enforce it.” Later, the Cherokees were forced to leave their land.
◀ Sometimes, the Supreme Court has changed its mind. In 1940, the court ruled that schools could force students to salute the flag even if their religion forbade it. In 1943, the court reversed this ruling.
▲ It can take the court years to reverse an unfair ruling. In 1896, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the court ruled that forcing African Americans to sit in separate railway cars was legal. But the cars had to be equal to those for whites. This was called the “separate but equal” ruling. It was used to justify segregation in all kinds of public places. But in 1954, the court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separate schools for African American children were, by their very nature, unequal. The court determined that segregation in schools was unconstitutional.
Supreme Court justices don’t all agree on how to interpret the Constitution. Some believe in a “living Constitution.” They think the framers wanted the Constitution to be flexible enough to allow for an ever-changing world. Other justices, called originalists, insist that the courts should base their rulings only on the original intent of the framers. But who decides what the intent of the framers was? ▼
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In 1966, in Miranda v. Arizona, the court ruled that criminal suspects must be warned of their rights to remain silent, to have an attorney present, and to have an attorney appointed by the state if the suspect cannot afford one. ▼
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◀ The Supreme Court also affects public policy when it refuses to hear a case. Here is a recent example. Surveillance means secretly listening to or reading a private communication. It might be a telephone call or an e-mail. According to the Fourth Amendment, the government must ask a judge for a search warrant before doing this. The judge decides if the surveillance is needed to find illegal activity. Since 2001, following the attacks of September 11, the government has sometimes conducted surveillance without first obtaining a search warrant. In 2014, the Supreme Court decided not to hear a case about these activities.
