Here is a little
American government 101 for you...there are three branches of government- the
President, Congress, and the Judiciary.
Surprisingly (or not) the Judicial Branch, the only branch not elected
by your votes typically has the highest approval rating.
With the advent of
President Obama’s second Supreme Court nomination, a recent poll revealed
some interesting figures about the American public’s lack of
knowledge about the Supreme Court.
Here
are some of the more interesting findings:
- 57% of Americans
could not name Obama’s latest Supreme Court nomination
- 67% of Americans
could not name a Supreme Court case
- 33% of those polled
said they don’t care who Obama elects
- The majority of
those polled thought the Supreme Court dealt with affirmative action and
abortion over any other subject matter
To me, these figures are
rather surprising, especially given the tremendous amount of media attention
the Supreme Court has been given in recent times in wake of two new
nominations.
The most disheartening
response is, of course, the number of people who don’t care who is elected to
serve on the Supreme Court. How do you
not care about such an important aspect of the government and the selection of
a person who will serve for the rest of their life?
Although most of us will never have to deal (directly that is) with
the Supreme Court, it is helpful to know how the local courts work since that
is the level of judiciary you are most likely to encounter. So, even though people may not know anything
about courts, you should at least know what happens to you if you fail
to appear in court when you are called.
Most commonly, an individual would be called to court to answer for a
crime or a speeding ticket. Failing to appear
is a misdemeanor. If you fail
to appear in court, the judge will issue a bench warrant
for failing to appear when you were obligated to do so. If a judge does
issue a bench warrant then any of the following may happen:
- If you
are stopped by the police, a systems check of your license number will
alert them to the bench warrant, and you will be arrested and brought
before the court
- Your
license will be suspended until the case is closed and you will have to
pay a fee to the DMV to get it reinstated
- You
may be held in contempt of court
- You
may have to pay a fine
- You
may be held in jail until the hearing
- You
may be denied
bail
So I guess the moral of the story here is that even if you don’t know about the Supreme Court, you should at least know about your rights and obligations when it comes to a court that you actually must appear in front of. From the variety of punishments, in addition to those associated with the crime or infraction you committed, courts do not take failure to appear very lightly. The consequences for failure to appear are totally separate from the consequences associated with your crime and it seems silly to be punished more than necessary.
By: Violet Petran
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