Oklahoma State University – Oklahoma City
Civil Rights and Liberties - POLS 1320
Winter 2022
Lecture Notes Six
Contents: The Supreme Court Role in a Diverse Society.
Lecture Notes Six
As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people the promise of
equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution.
"EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW"-These words, written above the main entrance to the Supreme Court
Building, express the ultimate responsibility of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court is the
highest tribunal in the Nation for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution or the laws of
the United States. As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people
the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the
Constitution.
The Supreme Court is "distinctly American in concept and function," as Chief Justice Charles Evans
Hughes observed. Few other courts in the world have the same authority of constitutional interpretation
and none have exercised it for as long or with as much influence. A century and a half ago, the French
political observer Alexis de Tocqueville noted the unique position of the Supreme Court in the history of
nations and of jurisprudence. "The representative system of government has been adopted in several
states of Europe," he remarked, "but I am unaware that any nation of the globe has hitherto organized a
judicial power in the same manner as the Americans. . . . A more imposing judicial power was never
constituted by any people."
The unique position of the Supreme Court stems, in large part, from the deep commitment of the
American people to the Rule of Law and to constitutional government. The United States has
demonstrated an unprecedented determination to preserve and protect its written Constitution,
thereby providing the American "experiment in democracy" with the oldest written Constitution still in
force.
The Constitution of the United States is a carefully balanced document. It is designed to provide for a
national government sufficiently strong and flexible to meet the needs of the republic, yet sufficiently
limited and just to protect the guaranteed rights of citizens; it permits a balance between society’s need
for order and the individual’s right to freedom. To assure these ends, the Framers of the Constitution
created three independent and coequal branches of government. That this Constitution has provided
continuous democratic government through the periodic stresses of more than two centuries illustrates
the genius of the American system of government.
The complex role of the Supreme Court in this system derives from its authority to invalidate legislation
or executive actions which, in the Court’s considered judgment, conflict with the Constitution. This
power of "judicial review" has given the Court a crucial responsibility in assuring individual rights, as well
as in maintaining a "living Constitution" whose broad provisions are continually applied to complicated
new situations.
