A History of the Supreme Court Including Some Landmark Case Decisions essays

A History of the Supreme Court Including Some Landmark Case Decisions essays Since the American Constitution was the first written constitution in the world, it created an entire wealth of laws and interpretations for the newly formed government. From 1787 until the mid-nineteenth century, the Supreme Court had to create policies and procedures while it heard cases. It literally had to "define itself" (Davis). While the founding fathers created a court system in 1787, it took until 1789 to truly define it and set up the basic system of the courts, which includes district courts and circuit courts. Historian Davis continues, "Three circuits, consisting of one district court judge and two Supreme Court justices, heard criminal cases and civil suits as well as appeals from the district courts" (Davis). Thus, the system was very different than it is today, where Supreme Court judges only rule on cases that have made it through the layers of district and state courts underneath them. In addition, Supreme Court justices were appointed to hold office as long as they had "good behavior" (Semonche 24), and that has always meant for "life" in the interpretation of the Court. Historian Semonche continues, "From the very beginning, then, the Court was charged with maintaining the national authority and, with it, the Union itself" (Semonche 40). That tradition continues today, with the word of the Supreme Court the final ruling in the courts of the nation. The original Court consisted of six judges, which was raised to seven in 1807, because of a growing population, and rose to nine in 1837, and ten during the Civil War. The Court dropped back to eight justices in 1866, and up to nine in 1869, the number that still rule today. Historian Davis notes, "Today, the Court oversees 13 Courts of Appeal (Circuit Courts) and 94 District Courts in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands. These courts, along with specialized legi...

Failures at Conventional Married Life Failures in Wooing the Feminine Women in The Tramp and One Week essays

Failures at Conventional Married Life Failures in Wooing the Feminine Women in The Tramp and One Week essays Both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton are often heralded as cinematic comedic pioneers. However, in both of these comedian's short films, entitled "The Tramp" and "One Week," each comedian makes use of common stereotypes of women, and also of common stereotypes of romantic relationships between men and women, to illustrate their comedic creations' personality deviations from the conventional masculine roles of domestic success. Both men in the two films function as failures in the domestic realm. This parallels their failures in conventional life and successes at comedic life. At the end of both films, rejections of conventional domesticity and the feminine become symbolic of these men's failures at conventional, masculine life, but also of their success in the world-upside down comedic, even heroic realm, of unconventional physical prowess and This is not to deny the groundbreaking efforts of both comedians. Surely, one of the seminal works of early comedy cinema is undoubtedly Charlie Chaplin's 1915 short film "The Tramp" because of its introduction of Chaplin's famous persona, The Little Tramp. As is indicative of the film's title, this story sets the tone and theme of almost all of the films Chaplin's major comedic character was to appear in. In this particular film, the tramp's first incarnation is that of a hobo who finds love by the side of a road. There is a strong association in the film between food, femininity, and the central protagonist's desire to find a place in a world. For instance, at the beginning of the short,' another tramp-like character, only a vicious one, tricks Chaplin's character into giving up his only sandwich for a brick. Because of this, the tramp must eat grass. But because of the tramp's willingness to trust he finds a more permanent source of sustenance. When the deceitful tramp tries to take advantage of a farmer's daughte...

DRM and trusted computing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

DRM and trusted computing - Essay Example 131-138). Similarly, According to Reid & Caelli (2005, p. 128), trusted computing is vulnerable to MitM attack when used to enforce DRM if the attacker acts as a proxy between two communicating users. This affects the flow of information because it is distorted or manipulated to suit the interests of the attacker. Computers that use unencrypted networks are vulnerable to attacks by the man in the middle because their network traffic is easily grabbed (Luotonen 1998, p. 120). In order to avoid the vulnerability of trusted computing to MitM attacks when enforcing DRM, it is advisable for communicating computers to use encrypted network connections. This may be offered by the Https technology that makes it tricky for an attacker to interfere with the network traffic (Reid & Caelli 2005, p. 129). The Https is efficient because of the safe sockets layer (SSL) facility that shields the web-based network interchange from unauthorized users. The Https also uses certificates that can prove the identity of the servers a computer is interacting with over the internet (Strebe 2006, p.

Research proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Research proposal - Essay Example rticularly in the contemporary age, when the financial and emotional implications of unsuccessful marriage are numerous, many people tend to cohabit rather than marrying to avoid commitment and its implications. Marriage is a very sacred institution. Many problems in our society like negative birth rate and teenage pregnancy result from a decline in the trend of marriage. I am personally approaching the age of marriage in near future, and would like to have a detailed study of the pros and cons, conveniences and complexities of marriage. This imparts the need to carry out an in-depth analysis of both types of marriage i.e. love marriage and arranged marriage, so that the one that has conventionally been more successful and has yielded more favorable results for people can be identified. Determinants of successful marriage, be that a love marriage or arranged marriage vary across cultures. For example, a marriage is declared good in Japan in which the man is the bread earner whereas the wife does not work whereas the ability of a husband to financially support his wife is not the measure of a good marriage in the USA (Lee and Ono). â€Å"Education has a strong and consistent association with marital quality, indicating that the greater the education the greater the marital quality† (Allendorf and Ghimire 18). To find out the answers of the above questions, a detailed literature review would be conducted for the secondary data. People who have done either love marriage or arranged marriage will be interviewed. Since this topic relates to the field of sociology, the qualitative research would be more suitable for the data collection and analysis than the quantitative research. Responses of the research participants will be analyzed and conclusions would be drawn. Marriage is of two basic types; love marriage and arranged marriage. There are certain drivers of successful marriage that differ between the two. The two also differ in their level of success in the past.

Miss Representation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Miss Representation - Essay Example In addition to this, only 16% are writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and editors. Patriarchy has played a big role about women representation. This paper is going to analyze the power of the media. The paper further analyzes the effects of the negative identity created by the media on the female fraternity hence affecting their roles in the society. The media has been used to portray a negative effect about women and this has further influenced their roles and positions in the world. This is because you can’t be what you can’t see. ‘The media is the message and the messenger’ these were the opening remarks in this documentary by Pat Mitchell who is the president and CEO of Paley Center for Media. The author of The Macho Paradox Jackson Katz argues that people learn a lot from the media that in any other source. On the other hand Jim Steyer the CEO of Common sense Media argues that the media is delivering the content that is shaping our society. Even though women make 51% of the total US population the number that makes it to elite positions in the US is very minimal. The media is to blame for this. The media makes and delivers the news and for this reason most of the things we watch and see is as a result of the trends liked by the media. The media has portrayed the males as dominant over the females. Patriarchy is evident and the female identity has been blurred. Nude pictures are used all over as a way of attraction. The director of this film reveals that despite the 51% female population only 1 7 comprises the congress. To prove that patriarchy is evident the first woman made it in the congress during the 2010 mid-term elections since 1979. Most of the youths are spending most of their times in the media especially through the social sites and they learn a lot from the media which shapes their lives. More especially, the girls are getting the message from a tender age just by watching

Report on Modernising Social Services

Report on Modernising Social Services Introduction The â€Å"Modernising Social Services† report (Secretary of State for Health 1998) concerns New Labour’s policy for improving social services that emphasises the important role this plays in helping people deal with personal crisis and life-changing events. In this report, social services were criticised for not previously meeting public expectations in key areas including: Inconsistencies in provision across the country. Inefficiencies in effective use of financial budgets. A lack of public awareness of what services should be available by whom. Insufficient safeguards to protect vulnerable children. Failures in co-ordination where, for example, local authorities disagreed on which body should be responsible for care. Inflexibility as regards individual needs and circumstances. To rectify these deficiencies, the report recommended improvements in all the areas listed. For example, with the elderly, this was to involve awarding payments directly to those aged 65 and over, thus promoting greater personal control as well as reshaping services to initiate greater independence and reduce inactivity. A long-term care charter was also to be introduced to further individual needs with assessments to gauge customer satisfaction. Children’s services were to be improved by introducing robust new inspection regimes for care with a national register to prevent undesirable individuals from working and coming into contact with children. Similar safeguards were to be introduced for the mentally ill. To achieve the required standards, new qualifications and training of staff were to be introduced and legislation enacted to improve liaison between various relevant bodies such as health and social services. An annual government report was to be established monitoring s ervice delivery by both local authorities and social services with action taken where standards failed to meet requirements. To finance these changes, annual funding was to be raised by 3.1 per cent per annum over three years and a Social Services Modernisation Fund inaugurated where funds were to be focussed on key areas. The report hoped that these initiatives would lead to real improvements in services covering all the sectors specified leading to a restoration of the public’s confidence but concluded that this modernisation would be a long term process of which the report represented just one step towards attaining significant improvements during the early part of the 21st century (section 8.1 and 8.2). Previous policy towards social care Although the health service had been comparatively successful in improving health up until the beginning of the 1980’s, it became a victim of its own success as those cured of present illnesses became ill at an older, more vulnerable, age (Glasby, 2007 p. 33) leading to greater pressure on social services in general. To offset the spiralling costs, the Thatcher government, which came to power in 1979, thus moved away from care provided by government bodies to a system based more on self reliance predicated on the notion that the demands of welfare was affecting the UK economy (Alcock 1996). This led to various market-based reforms in response two reports (Griffiths 1983, 1988) where integrated management structures were recommended at all levels of both the NHS and social services where the emphasis was to be on efficiency. In addition, the amount of funding available for the NHS reduced and ways were implemented to improve efficiency and service provision that culminated in a government White Paper (Dept. of Health 1989a) that saw the introduction of the internal market and the purchaser/provider divide. Similarly, in social care, social service departments were to both plan and organize community care with local authorities acting as purchases of the different care facilities available a scheme that has been criticised for transferring the increasing government budget onto local authorities despite the apparent aim of the Caring for People reforms (Dept. of Health 1989b) that sort to empower individuals by providing greater choice. The extent of the government’s limited response to these and other recommendations can be gauged by Griffiths (1992) the author of the two Griffiths’ reports criticism of the lack of positive action. The government’s policy was also criticised because, with a shift of responsibility to families, voluntary organizations and individuals themselves, a means was provided whereby privatisation could be pro moted and free care reduced (Baggot 2004, p.276). The result of these policies was that by 1989 the share of private and voluntary organizations had expanded to cover half the long term provision for care of the elderly. Moreover, those reforms introduces as a result of the Griffiths Report led to defensive management and reduced morale among professionals working in social care during the 1990’s (Baggot 2004 p. 279). Policy under New Labour With the election of New Labour in 1997 a â€Å"third way† was offered as a means of bridging the divide between right-wing reliance on market forces and the more socially driven attitudes of the left. This culminated in the 1998 report on social care that came out of the Labour parties wish for â€Å"joined up government† that endeavoured to link the various agencies together, especially services to do with health and social welfare – two departments that had previously operated as relatively separate entities (Glasby 2007, p. 7). Thus, interagency working became one of the main areas of concern after 1998. The reality, however, seems to indicate that there were important changes as well as continuities with previous policies (ibid p. 36). Thus, there was an undertaking to stay within previous spending limits but the internal market was abolished. Later, however, spending limits were broken with large increases in expenditure and the internal market was replaced with a similarly functioning primary care commissioning system. In this respect, the government expressed the wish to build only on that which had previously proved effective (Dept. of Health 1997). One policy that continued accordingly involved the closing of large institutions that helped to deinstitutionalise the attitudes of inmates and staff (Baggot 2004). The policy of community care was hence strengthened whereby individuals from groups such as the mentally ill, the elderly, those with learning difficulties, etc., were given more say in decisions about care and the various options for living in the community or at home. Glasby (ibid), however, has criticised the concept of community care because, although facilities became more human in scale and community oriented, they still tended to be institutional in outlook with the previous ethos in relation to providers and users continuing to prevail well into the 21st century. In addition, up to 2001, there were still obvious disp arities in delivery of policies across local authorities. Despite this negativity, government publications such as â€Å"Valuing People† (Dept. of Health 2001) had, at least, shifted emphasis by highlighting the main issues. The trend whereby the independent sector took charge of residential and nursing homes continued, however, to the extent that nearly all commercial and voluntary organizations now came under independent control a trend also reflected in home care where independent involvement had increased to about fifty per cent by 2002 (Baggot 2004, p.282). The tendency towards more central government control in monitoring social care and the integration of services also continued but there were strong criticisms as regards the regulation of care homes (Fahey et al 2003). A series of regulatory acts during from 2000 onwards, however, attempted to remedy this situation (Baggot 2004, p. 292) and a performance framework was introduced with a â€Å"Best Value† system to gauge efficiency that was later censured for emphasising cost over quality. Conclusion Although there have been many recommendations for change to social services since the 1980’s, the application of these to the real world has been piecemeal and often influenced by political expediency. The move towards independent provision during the Conservative period, although well intentioned, led to a cutback in funding with problems concerning standards and monitoring with the move towards care in the community leading to difficulties of integration of services across providers and communication between professional groups. With the arrival of New Labour, the policy of care in the community continued with attempts at greater integration, improvement of standards, and increased monitoring leading to different levels of success. Regional variations in provision continued and the rhetoric was not always met with real change that may be a consequence of the fact that long-standing attitudes continued to influence actual policy. Moreover, the move towards care in the communi ty has still not been matched by corresponding high quality services or adequate liaison between professional groups and providers to the extent that the aims of the â€Å"Modernising Social Services† report still remain to be achieved. Ultimately, it seems a paradox continues to exist between an approach where people are regarded as citizens having equal rights to service that is opposed to the alternative whereby individuals are viewed as customers with the right to choose a â€Å"product†. Continuing tensions relating to this dichotomy may be the source of ongoing shortfalls in provision that have led to ongoing problems with regard to local health and social service integration. Nevertheless, as the report on â€Å"Modernising Social Services† has emphasised, improvements to the system were expected to be a gradual stepwise process which seems to be confirmed by the various measured enhancements in services to date. Bibliography Alcock, P. Social Policy: Themes and issues. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Baggot, R. 2004. Health and Health Care in Britain. Palgrave: Houndmills. Dept. of Health. 1989a Working for patients. HMSO: London. Dept. of Health. 1989b Caring for people. HMSO: London. Dept. of Health. 1997. The new NHS: Modern, dependable. The Stationary Office: London. Dept. of Health. 2001. Valuing People: A new strategy for learning disability for the 21st century. The Stationary Office: London. Fahey, T., Montgomery, A., Barnes, J. and Protheroe, J. 2003. Quality of Care for Elderly Residents. in Nursing Homes and Elderly People Living at Home: Controlled Observational Study. British Medical Journal. 326. pp. 580-583, Glasby, J. 2007. Understanding Health and Social Care. The Policy Press: Bristol. Griffiths R. 1983. NHS management inquiry (The Griffiths Report). DHSS: London. Griffiths, R. 1988. Community care: Agenda for action (The Griffiths Report). HMSO: London. Griffiths, R. 1993 Seven years of progress – general management in the NHS. Health Economics. 1 (1): pp. 67-70. Secretary of State. 1998 Modernising Social Services – Promoting independence. Improving protection. Raising standards. The Stationary Office: London.

Alfred Stieglitz Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Alfred Stieglitz Works Cited Missing Alfred Stieglitz was an influential photographer who spent his life fighting for the recognition of photography as a valid art form. He was a pioneering photographer, editor and gallery owner who played pivotal role in defining and shaping modernism in the United States. (Lowe 23). He took pictures in a time when photography was considered as only a scientific curiosity and not an art. As the controversy over the art value of photography became widespread, Stieglitz began to fight for the recognition of his chosen medium. This battle would last his whole life. Edward Stieglitz, father of Alfred, was born in Germany in 1833. He grew up on a farm, loved nature, and was an artist at heart. Legend has it that, independent and strong willed, Edward Stieglitz ran away from home at the age of sixteen because his mother insisted on upon starching his shirt after he had begged her not to (Lowe 23). Edward would later meet Hedwig Warner and they would have their first son, Alfred. Alfred was the first of six born to his dad Edward and mom Hedwig. As a child Alfred was remembered as a boy with thick black hair, large dark eyes, pale fine skin, a delicately modeled mouth with a strong chin (Peterson 34). In 1871 the Stieglitz family lived at 14 East 60th street in Manhattan. No buildings stood between Central Park and the Stieglitz family home. As Stieglitz got older he started to show interest in photography, posting every photo he could find on his bedroom wall. It wasn't until he got older that his photography curiosity begin to take charge of his life. Stieglitz formally started photography at the age of nineteen, during his first years at the Berlin Polytechnic School. At this time photography was in its infancy as an art form. Alfred learned the fine arts of photography by watching a local photographer in Berlin working in the store's dark room. After making a few pictures of his room and himself, he enrolled in a photochemistry course. This is where his photography career would begin. His earliest public recognition came from England and Germany. It began in 1887 when Stieglitz won the first of his many first prizes in a competition. The judge who gave him the award was Dr. P.H. Emerson, then the most widely known English advocate of photography as an art (Doty 23). Dr. Emerson later wrot... ...raphers. At the turn of the century, a new class of creative individuals, called painter- photographer emerged. This group fulfilled Stieglitz' s dream for pictorial photography. Its presence provided the movement with individuals who were trained in the established arts and who legitimized the artistic claims of pictorial photography by the fact that they were willing to use the photographic medium. The very term painter photographer was made up in reference to Frank Eugene who worked simultaneously with Stieglitz in media for a decade. Eugene attended a German fine arts academy, and painted theatrical portraits of the United States. In 1889 he mounted a solo exhibition of pictorial photographs at the Camera Club of New York, which, pointedly, was reviewed in Camera Notes as painting photography (Norman 23). In conclusion Stieglitz's fight for photography developed into new ideas for future generations. He continued to make his own experiments and to defend the work of others also breaking new ground. The magazines he edited, like the galleries he founded, swiftly became dynamic points of contact between artist and public and a battleground for new ideas.