Matt Michel

Matt Michel

AP Gov Political Blog Assignment

All these political cases decide if a certain issue is supported by the constitution or there is a change that needs to be made for the situation. These cases can be complicated, but they are all examples of an unclear ruling in the Constitution and needed to be ruled upon by the court. These cases cover debates over religion rights according to public practice, Freedom of speech issues and other societal problems.

In the case Engel v. Vitale (1962), the idea of religion in schools is questioned and who has the correct circumstances is at debate. Engel petitioned against morning prayers in public schools, even though participation isn’t mandatory. This case was brought to attention when Engel lead a group of parents siding with his beliefs, from his childs elementary school to put a stop to these prayers. The group sued Vitale, who was president of the school board. The case started in New York and grew as time went on as a national issue which was settled at Supreme Court. Engel won the case and it was ruled unconstitutional to hold a single religion based prayer in a public school even if participation is optional. The final ruling was 6-1 ending in a Conservative solution to end the dispute. The Chief Justice was not needed in this case because of the one sided final vote. The lone vote argued that the original amendment for freedom of religion should be accepted as freedom of religion, which is protection against state sponsored churches. Justice douglas thought that the case should be taken further and the argument with religion should be made less of a public practice. This case sternethens the idea that the Amendment of freedom of religion is to protect all by not letting religion into public places like schools.

The case of U.S. v. Lopez in 1994-95, debates a past released Act that prevents citizens from knowingly carrying  gun into a No Gun Zone. Lopez, a High School senior who brought a concealed gun into his highschool, Edison Highschool in San Antonio. The case started as a state criminal charge for possessing a gun. Those charges were dropped the following day, when a federal agent accused him of violating the 1990 Gun Free School Zone Act. The essential question of this case was if ruling this case under that Act was unconstitutional because it exceeds the power of Congress. The Case was ruled unconstitutional by a vote of 5-4, with the Chief Justice giving the final vote.  Chief Justice believed that possession of a firearm on school property is a crime but doesn’t affect the economy in any way. Lopez was charged with 6 months in prison and a 2 year supervised release. A huge conflict in this case was whether the incident will affect the amount of people that travel and live in the area because of violence. THe rest of the voters supported the idea that bringing a gun into a school negatively impacts the community's economy and reputation, meaning it would be best if the case is state ruled. This case is focused on the 2nd Amendment (the right of the people to keep and bear arms), Lopez was charged with a serious punishment because he purposely brought the firearm into a Gun Free Zone, when he did so at his High School. 

Citizens United v. FEC, in 2008-09 there was a care involving freedom of speech; the First Amendment. The case involves the BCRA making a movie on the future if Hillary Clinton was president and if this action was acceptable. The main focus was what is appropriate to say about an opponent like in this case, Clinton. When reviewing the case it showed that this movies violated many other sections leading Citizens United to sue FEC, for the film. Citizens United won by a 5-4 vote in a liberal ruling. Chief Justice emphasized the case was handled to avoid further unconstitutional problems. This case can go both ways because many people think saying a campaign was hurting both sides. This ruling was put into place to also stop future candidates from having an advantage in a campaign; being able to produce movies and commercials about opponents. This case was ruled that it was not protected to make a video on why she shouldn’t be President. 

These cases were all focused on the debate of a person or persons rights in some way. Most of the rulings were decided by a close margin with the help of the Chief Justice to step in on two of the cases. The Chief Justice is who they look at to make a final ruling in a big case like these. All these cases were brought to attention by the Supreme Court when the cases continued to be appealed or a decision could not be made through numerous courts. How the Courts get to the final and correct decision is what takes the whole story and a lot of factors go into the decision, depending on what is based off the constitution or not.