Question

Describe the three core roles played by courts in policymaking: constitutional referee, meaning giver, and rights protector. Provide examples?

Answer 1

The three core roles played by courts in policymaking are :

• Constitutional referee : The supreme court plays the role of a referee in a football match. The Congress, President, state police and the government officials are all the players on the field. The Supreme court job is to decide when the government officials are within the boundaries of the enforced laws and when they step out of the boundaries of the law. Example : In 1949, Mr. Terminiello had given a speech to the audience in a hall of Chicago, attacking all sorts of people. A crowd was called outside the hall. He used abusive words for the crowd and the people who disagreed with him. As per the Constitution, the Freedom of Speech is given to everybody and any person can speak whatever he wants.
• Meaning Giver : The role says that the court has the ability to interpret the meaning of the laws given in the Constitution which may be unclear. The court can interpret the meaning as per the ability. For example, if the law Freedom to speech is not clear to the court, they have the freedom to interpret its meaning as per their ability.
• Rights Protector : This means that the court justifies the constitutional rights of the parties who comes to the court alleging the violation of their rights. For instance, if any person's comes with the allegation that another violates his rights, the court can pass the order to protect his constitutional rights.