Размещено 4 года назад по предмету
Английский язык
от Аккаунт удален
перекладіть текст на українську мову
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Not everyone whose case goes before the Supreme Court is a winner. Losers have included
prisoners who claimed they were treated unjustly because they were locked up two to a cell built for one.
The Supreme Court did not think this "overcrowding" was "cruel and unusual punishment," which the
Constitution prohibits.
Another loser was a man who was arrested for calling a policeman a "fascist" and using other
abusive language loudly in public. The Supreme Court ruled that freedom of speech does not give people
the right to use words that unjustly harm the reputation of another person.
It should also be noted that not all Americans are satisfied with all Supreme Court decisions. Many
Americans believe that the court too often "takes the side of the criminals" in declaring proceedings
invalid because an accused person's rights have been violated. Others argue, however, that protecting
the innocent is the real intent of these rulings, and that it is better to have a few criminals go free than to
have one innocent person be jailed.
Not all cases are settled in the Supreme Court. Only a small percentage win the attention of the
chief justice and the associate justices. Many cases sent to the Supreme Court are studied by the justices
and then sent back to the court or person from which they came. That means that, as a lower court has
ruled on the case, the ruling remains in effect.
Lower courts often hear cases and make decisions that are extremely important to large groups of
people. In recent years, for example, Native Americans—better known as American Indians—have gone
to courts to have land returned to them. The land may have been taken from them by white people a
hundred or more years ago. In one case argued in the 1980s, Indians in the state of Connecticut were
awarded nearly 400 hectares of land that had been taken from their people in the 1700s. In the 1980s,
the land was owned by the people who lived on it, but the federal government awarded the Indians
money to buy back the land and to open their own businesses on it.