Courts Role in Public Policy Making

Policy making is a process that involves the three branches of government and this includes the judiciary. There is no agreement as to the amount of power that the judicial branch should have and this is basically because the federal justices and judges are normally appointed and not elected (Tarr, 2009). This means that they are always relieved of the pressure outside the public opinion. All the same, the court is very important when it comes to public policy making.  In the United States, the Supreme Court has an extremely important policy making role which has an enormous impact on the criminal justice system (Tarr, 2009). This court has the authority of the judicial review which permits it to assess the acts of the Congress and define if these doings meet the standards that are established by the constitution.

The court of law has the jurisdictional authority to interpret the rule which gives the courts the power to make criminal justice policies and also shape other important public policies that help shape the society (Tarr, 2009). The judges have the power to evaluate the policies to understand the effect that they have on the society and by ruling that the laws that are implemented violate the spirit of the constitution, they profoundly shape the constitution. The Supreme Court has the power to overrule itself which means that policies can be changed at any time even after implementation. However, courts have great respects for previous rulings and stare decisis always direct judges to be cautious about overturning the decisions that are by past courts (Tarr, 2009).

 

 

 

References

Tarr, G. A. (2009). Judicial process and judicial policymaking. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth

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