Fairness
Justice
The Difference
The main difference between being fair and being just is the separation of God and humans. Fairness has to do with the morals and ideals that humans hold to be important. Although all morals humans have come from God, the interpretation of these morals are what creates the idea of fairness. Humans believe that everything should be fair and equal, but that is different from just. Justice is conformity to God's character, and a lot of the things that people want to be "fair" these days are not pleasing to God, nor are they just. They are fair in the eyes of the people. The concept of fairness is man-made. Complete fairness is impossible to achieve because of human sin, but nevertheless, Americans keep trying to come up with new ways to make the U.S. to seem a little fairer whether by protesting about something, taking it to court, or downright ignoring laws that make their beliefs of something "unfair". People are forgetting that the end of all goals is to create and maintain justice. When you conform to God's character and see things from the perspective of his point of view, you start to realize that with justice comes "fairness".
The Struggles of Staying Fair, Impartial and Just
Some of the characteristics of a good judge is someone who is impartial to others opinions and ideas no matter the case, has a moral compass set on the ideals of God, and is steadfast in their beliefs and focused on Biblical principles. Not everyone is qualified to be a judge or someone who makes important decisions that impact others lives in a significant way. It is most definitely a struggle to keep your own opinions out of issues and cases but also keep the ideals of Christ in mind. That is why justice and fairness are important factors to help keep judges and people in general from straying away from Biblical truth and staying impartial in important decision making.
The Difference
The Judicial Branch is made up of the Court Systems. Article III of the Constitution outlines the Supreme Court which is the highest court in the land, and the rest of the lower court circuits were created by Congress. In the Supreme Court there are currently 9 Supreme Court Justices.
One of the most important aspects of the Judicial Branch is the use of Judicial Review which is the judicial branch’s power to review the constitutionality of laws passed by the legislative branch or of actions taken by the executive branch and to declare them unconstitutional. Judicial Review helps assert the power of the Judicial Branch and its importance to the government.
Another important aspect of the Judicial Branch is remembering the separation of Church and State in all decisions. However people interpret that phrase today does not take away from the fact that, historically it means that the government cannot pay for a national church not that you can’t bring Christianity into the Government.
In the beginning, the creation of the Judicial Branch relied heavily on laws and precedents that were already set by other countries. The biggest contributor to the birth of America's Judicial Branch was Commentaries on the Law of England written by: William Blackstone. Blackstone's book of laws relied on these criteria: 1) England's law is based on Scripture 2) Natural Law is given to all men as their conscience. This book became the textbook for lawyers in America. However, with the thoughts of human creation and God dwindling, and the rise of Evolutionary thoughts, Americans started referring to the Constitution as a Living Document that changes with the different times and thoughts that came along with those times. With this came the rise of belief in Sociological Law which is the idea that the logic of society makes the law, which is not what God intended for government to be like especially with the very liberal society we live in today.
The Judicial Branch all started with the Judiciary Act of 1789 which set the 13 district courts and the whole system. Judicial Federalism established the separation between State and Federal government, where the sentences are harder in the Federal Court. Next came the District Courts and the idea that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. After the long process of the district courts is over with and the person charged wants to appeal, they must first have a legal basis and then they can take their case to the Circuit Court of Appeals. Each level of courts has its own rules and processes. The Supreme Court, however, is the original jurisdiction, as shown in the Constitution.
With the Judicial Branch comes power. Judicial Restraint is a theory of judicial interpretation that encourages judges to limit the exercise of their own power. It asserts that judges should hesitate to strike down laws unless they are obviously unconstitutional, though what counts as obviously unconstitutional is itself a matter of some debate.
Sometimes the amount of power that comes with this branch is a lot to handle and it can be abused. Judicial Activism is judicial rulings suspected of being based on personal or political considerations rather than on existing law. It is sometimes used as an antonym of judicial restraint. One example of this would be the legalization of gay marriage in every state at a national level. The fourteenth Amendment does not give the Judicial Branch control over everything.
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