Media Law Final - Ch1 - Rule Of Law

Front 1

7 (6 + 1) Sources of the Law

Back 1

Constitutions, Statutes, Equity Law, Common Law, Administrative Law, Executive Orders + Judicial Review

Front 2

Constitutions

Back 2

Basic law; provides framework for government (3 branches of government)

Front 3

Statutes

Back 3

Legislative process

Front 4

Equity law

Back 4

No juries – judge decides the case (divorce, state is being divided, custody, etc). Litigants often ask for injunctions or restraining orders

Front 5

Common law

Back 5

Use of precedent, or doctrine of stare decisis (which means let it stand) refers to the idea of precedent if you have a current case with a certain set of facts, the way you decide that law is that you look at an old case with similar legal principles and use it in the present case.

Front 6

Administrative law

Back 6

Rules and regulations from administrative agencies. 2 Examples: FCC (issues concerning mass media, internet regulations), FTC (department of homeland security, state, federal, and municipal level)

Front 7

Executive orders

Back 7

from executive branch. Ex: President Harry S. Truman desegregated armed forces and civil service in 1948

Front 8

Judicial Review

Back 8

Marbury vs. Madison, USSC (1803)

Iidea of judicial review comes from this case.

We see this as a check on the executive branch and the judicial branch.

Example: Plessy v Ferguson, USSC (1896) Louisiana train car 1/8 African American dude. Can a state have segregated train cars? Court rules yes – since there were separate but equal train cars available for African-Americans. 2nd Example: Brown v Board of Education USSC (1954) Can a state segregate the public school system? Yes. If the court was following stare decisis how must they rule? Thurgood Marshall later becomes the first African American justice and makes a powerful argument. He is a lawyer. He demonstrated by separate schools are vastly inferior, teachers were of poor quality, books sucked. “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”