Essay on "Philosophy of Law"

Essay 3 pages (1040 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Philosophy of Law

B (a) -- in law, a trial is the event in which two or more parties meet to present evidence to an authority regarding a dispute. In the contemporary world, this is most often a meeting of opposing sides before a Judge or Judge and Jury who will hear the merits of the case and then form an opinion based on legal precedents. An appeal is a formal process in which one part or the other in a case requests a change to an official decision. An appeal is complex, it can be based on different or new evidence, of an assertion that the legal process was not followed, or there were other extenuating circumstances involved in the original trial. Typically, prior to a new trial, an Appellate Court reviews the motion, reviews the trial record, and rules on whether points of law were followed or if there are reasons that were disallowed or new that might change the outcome of the trial. Courts of appeal are typically staffed with odd number of Judges so that it takes a majority ruling (2 out of 3 at least) to make a new decision -- the theory is that there will be no split decisions that will confuse legal precedent. The highest appellate Court in the United States is the Supreme Court, and often times Judges must recuse themselves because of various reasons, which could result in a tie. The Court then has the option of letting the lower Court ruling stand, or hearing the case again.

B (b) -- in Loving v Virginia, the state of Virginia ignored U.S. Supreme Court precedent and cited the authority in Virginia Supreme Court's own decision in a 1955 case, Naim v Naim. Virginia also argued that its decision to uphold the case was not a 14th Amendment violation since both the white and non-white individuals in the case were punished equally under the act of miscegenation. The Supreme Court, however, noted that precedent in these cases dated back to the late 1800s and that under two clauses: Due Process and Equal Protection, Virginia's anti-miscegenation statutes actually violated federal law and were racist, perpetuated white supremacy, and were unenforceable. Interestingly, though, until 2000 these laws were kept on the books of individual states, even though once Loving was decided, rarely used (Loving v. Virginia, 1967).

B (c) - One cannot know the Loving's exact reasons for waiting to appeal the Virginia Court's judgment, other than the political and social climate of the time changed dramatically from the original plea in January of 1959 and the ACLU's appeal of the court in November 1963. In this short time, more and more Civil Rights activities were coming to the forefront, the political climate had changed from the Eisenhower administration to the optimism of the Kennedy/Johnson years, people were more vocal about civil issues during the Vietnam conflict, and the mass media (television, etc.) far more active and plentiful for the general public. Finally, due process and the rights of defendants became more of a focus of the Warren Court between 1963 and 1966, and… READ MORE

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