Judicial review is the power of the court to assess whether a particular law is contrary to the provisions of other laws or the Constitution. It is generally accepted that judicial review follows from the structure of the Constitution and is a basic principle of the US judiciary. This principle was introduced more than two centuries ago, quite a short time after the signing of the Constitution. Two landmark Supreme Court decisions, in the cases Hilton v United States 1796 and Marbury v Madison 1803, spurred legislators to introduce the practice (Spitzer, 2020). In the first case, the Supreme Court reviewed the plaintiff’s assertion that the Act of Congress, the Transportation Act of 1794, was unconstitutional in a judicial review (Spitzer, 2020). In the second case, the Supreme Court openly declared its power to declare the law in question unconstitutional.
As part of the second case, for the first time, the statement was made that the Constitution implies the right of the Supreme Court to overturn unconstitutional legislation. Today, the practice of judicial reviews is widely used, and by 2014 the Supreme Court had found 176 acts of Congress unconstitutional (Spitzer, 2020). Therefore, the practice of judicial review is of great importance, as it creates a procedure for reviewing erroneous initiatives in legislation.
Notably, the judicial activism is relevant for scenarios where a judge decides on a case without regard to legal precedents. Such decisions must be made to protect the rights of the individual and within the framework of a more general political and social truth. The term of judicial activism was first introduced in 1947 by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (Spitzer, 2020). Judicial activism is important today, as society must have influence on the laws that govern its life. For example, those people whose interests are violated by unjust laws should be able to defend their rights and can do this through appeals and support for judicial activism.
Reference
Spitzer, E. (2020). What is judicial activism? ThoughtCo. Web.