This is an interesting question, and one that was recently rendered more relevant (Justice Scalia’s untimely death created a vacancy on the court). Both of the answers reading “the lower court decision is affirmed” and “the decision does not create binding precedent” are correct. Many of you are probably wondering about the likelihood of this happening, given the fact that we have 9 Justices, which, mathematically, renders impossible a tie. That, of course, is true, however it overlooks four possibilities: (1) A Justice may die on the bench (e.g. Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice Scalia); (2) a Justice may resign; (3) a Justice may be impeached; (4) a Justice may have to recuse himself. Any of these four possibilities will render a vacancy on the bench and thus create the possibility of a 4-4 split. You should be familiar with the concepts in 1-3, but you may not know what recusal is (and that’s completely fine!). Broadly, recusal is when justice (or a judge) must remove herself from presiding over a particular case because of some kind of conflict of interest. The specifics are beyond the scope of your course. 

This should have been an easy question. If the Supreme Court declines to hear a case—which is the rule, rather than the exception—the ruling of the lower court stands. Due to the fact that the Supreme Court hears only 1% (on average) of the cases requesting cert, the courts of appeals are the often the ultimate authority on the matter.

This is an interesting and practical question. The American Rule refers to the American practice of requiring each side to bear their own attorney’s fees regardless of whether you win or lose! This is in direct contradiction to the European or English Rule that places attorney’s fees on the shoulders of the loser (talk about adding insult to injury). There are a variety of reasons for the American Rule, but the most articulated is that it removes a significant barrier to litigation: money. If people went to court terrified that they may have to pay (1) their attorney’s fees, (2) a judgment (if they lost), and (3) their opponent’s attorney’s fees, they may refuse to bring a meritorious case to court. 

“Voir dire” roughly translates to “to see to speak” and it refers to the process of selecting a jury—in both criminal and civil cases, and at both a state and federal level. Without going into detail that is far beyond the scope of your course, jury selection is an important part of every case. Take, for example, a criminal case involving the alleged theft of a pair of diamond earrings from a jewelry store. If you were the defendant, would you want a jury box full of jewelry store owners? Probably not. 

This should have been an easy question. Nobody ever gets to “automatically” write all of the opinions for the Supreme Court. The author of the opinion depends in large part on the makeup of the majority. If, for example, the Chief Justice is on the majority, he has the right to assign authorship of the opinion to whoever he desires (including himself). If, however, the Chief Justice is part of the minority (that is, not a part of the majority decision) the most senior justice on the majority side retains that right.

This date was selected to mark the date of the opening of the current Supreme Court building. The Supreme Court has a very busy schedule. The justices review briefs and decide if the case has Constitutional merit and is should be granted a hearing. They hold hearings to gather information and evidence on which they will base their decisions. The justices meet in conference to determine which cases will be brought before them, review the case materials and discuss their decision. Then a justice is selected to write the deciding opinion, another justice is chosen to write a dissenting opinion if one exists and other judges may write concurring opinions. The justices and their clerks are extremely busy from October to the last day in June. And just like students and teachers, after taking a short summer break, many justices read to update their knowledge of the law and some even speak to school groups regarding their role in government and the law

An iron triangle involves the policy-making relationship among a Congressional committee, the bureaucracy, and an interest group. The committee provides funding and political support to the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy provides low regulation and special favors to the interest group, and the interest group provides electoral support to the committee. In return, the bureaucracy provides policy choices and execution to the committee, the committee provides friendly legislation and oversight to the interest group, and the interest group provides congressional support (via lobbying) to the bureaucracy.

The name given to a Legislative grant of money to finance a specific government program is "appropriations."

A President can be impeached only under very specific circumstances. First the House must vote for impeachment by a simple majority, but, this simply states that the President must stand trial, so the case moves to the Senate, where the trial takes place. A two-thirds vote is needed in the Senate to remove the President from office.

Andrew Johnson was the President who had to deal with the reunification of the North and South during the inaugural years of Reconstruction. In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited the President from removing his own appointed officials from office. Johnson ignored this act when he removed his secretary of war and replaced him with Ulysses S. Grant. He was impeached by the House as a result, and was almost removed from office, surviving the trial in the Senate by one vote.