Structure of the U.S. Government

In this episode, the structure and function of the U.S. government will be explained, and the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known as the "Bill of Rights," will be discussed.

Transcript

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Have you ever wondered why cops sometimes use lights and sirens when responding to calls and sometimes they don't? Have you ever wondered why cops stand where they do when they're contacting a driver during a traffic stop? Have you ever wondered why cops sometimes let something slide, let some things slide, but seem to have zero tolerance for other things? Hello and welcome to my podcast, Inside the Criminal Process. My name's Scott, and today I'm going to talk about the structure and function of our government here in the U.S. Might sound like a civics lecture, but I think it's important to understand the foundation upon which our criminal justice system was built. So, as you all know, or maybe you don't, the government in the U.S. operates as a federal constitutional republic. We have three branches of government that are meant to check and balance each other. They're the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The legislative branch is made up of elected officials, senators, and representatives. It's a bicameral legislature, meaning there are two branches or chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, which are referred to as Congress collectively. It is responsible for making laws, representing people, overseeing the executive branch. In my state, the Congress is referred to as the General Assembly at the state level. So then there's the executive branch responsible for enforcing laws, conducting foreign policy, and overseeing federal administration at the federal level. At the state level, the executive branch is responsible for implementing and enforcing laws passed by the legislative branch, overseeing the operation of state agencies, and managing the state's executive functions. The president leads the executive branch at the federal level, and the governor oversees it at the state level. The judicial branch is given its power by Article III of the U.S. Constitution. This branch is responsible for interpreting laws, upholding individual rights, resolving disputes, and maintaining checks and balances on the legislative and executive branches. These branches theoretically check and balance one another so that no branch has complete power to control and direct the government. For example, the president can veto laws that Congress passes. Congress can override that veto with a two-thirds majority. And the courts have the power to declare laws unconstitutional, which limits the legislative and executive branch powers. Our government is based on federalism, which means power is divided between federal and state governments. Each state is set up like the federal government, and states can make and enforce their own laws as long as those laws don't conflict with the federal laws. So I'm going to bring up something that usually comes up when I talk about this. How can marijuana be legal at the state level when there's a federal law that makes it illegal? So the supremacy clause in the Constitution states that federal law is the supreme law of the land. But it doesn't mean that all federal laws can preempt all state laws. The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits what state laws can be federally preempted. And in reality, the federal government hasn't actively enforced marijuana laws. In states with legalization for sure, or at least in my state, but they've they haven't been interested in in marijuana cases for quite some time. I was on a federal task force that uh one of the task force officers found a tractor trailer full of bales of marijuana and um he brought it back to the task force commander and they ran it by the U.S. attorney and they just weren't interested in in taking a marijuana case. And this was ten years ago, ten, eleven years ago. So in this country, drugs are classified by their schedules. Schedule one is like LSD, heroin, ecstasy, uh pretty serious drugs. There's a high potential for dependence, no recognized medical uses. Marijuana's on that schedule. But I've heard that they're going to to switch it from Schedule One to Schedule Three. So uh it would still require a prescription to be dispersed because it is a controlled substance, but it's not treated like the more serious drugs. Um ecstasy, heroin, LSD, schedule one, cocaine amphetamine schedule two. Uh it would just it wouldn't be as serious of an offense as it would be under under a schedule one or two. I don't know if they're gonna make that change, but it would make f sense though, um, since the the feds don't go after marijuana users anyways, typically. Not in my state, anyways. So there is a federal law, 18 United States Code 922. It uh prohibits unlawful users of or anyone addicted to any controlled substance from possessing firearms or ammunition. So what this means is that if you are a recreational user of marijuana, you cannot purchase or possess a firearm or ammunition. There is a case pending at the Supreme Court right now regarding this this very issue. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Uh could have a major impact on gun ownership in this country. Uh most people, I think, at least uh the people that I know of, um that use marijuana don't even realize that that's uh that's a that's a law. So if the feds ever start I think it mostly comes into play now when people are purchasing firearms because you have to fill out the form and you have to uh um swear or affirm that you're you're not an unlawful user or addicted to any controlled substance. So we have several sources of rights in this country federal and state constitutions, statutes, case law, and court rules. The U.S. Constitution outlines the structure of our government, the powers of each branch, and the rights of citizens. I'll spend a good deal of time discussing the Constitution, specifically the first ten amendments that are referred to as the Bill of Rights, um, and they guarantee fundamental freedoms to every citizen in this country. So the Bill of Rights is our minimal rights, it's the minimal rights of all citizens, the minimum that that all citizens enjoy. State constitutions and state federal law can expand those rights, but the Bill of Rights identifies the minimum that must be upheld. So state and federal laws can make they can expand the rights, but they can't restrict them further than what they're what what we already enjoy, the rights we already enjoy right now. So the First Amendment, that's freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly. Second Amendment, right to keep and bear arms. Third Amendment basically says military troops can't take over your house without your consent. Um don't think that's been an issue in recent history. Fourth Amendment, basically that's protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Probable you have to have a warrant based on probable cause for arrest and search and or search of property. So the Fifth and Sixth Amendments are what the Miranda rights involve. The Fifth Amendment protects people from double jeopardy. It protects people against self-incrimination. There's right, you have a right to a grand jury indictment for a capital or serious crime. That's at the federal level only. Right to due process prior to taking life, liberty, or property. Sixth Amendment basically gives you a right to a speedy and public trial, right to an impartial jury, right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, right to confront witnesses, right to summon witnesses, and um the right to the assistance of counsel. Seventh Amendment is the right to a jury trial and civil actions. Eighth Amendment is protection against excessive bail and protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The Ninth Amendment basically says rights in the Constitution do not exclude other rights given to the people. Basically, that means just because something is not specifically listed in the Constitution doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So the Tenth Amendment basically says states have powers to create laws unless the issue is federal only and unless the powers are prohibited by the Constitution. Fourteenth Amendment is the right to due process, the uh basically fundamental fairness, right to equal protection. People must be treated alike unless there's legitimate reason to treat them differently. There's a total of 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Interesting fact, since the year 1789, there's been 11,985 amendments proposed, but we still only have 27. So that gives you an idea of how hard it is to get an amendment to the Constitution passed. The U.S. has a dual court system, federal and state. And those decisions of those courts are only binding in those jurisdictions, unless it's a constitutional issue. Then it would apply. If the U.S. Supreme Court makes a ruling, that applies to every state in the country. So if you're charged by a federal law enforcement agency, you'll go to federal court. If you're convicted, you'll go to federal prison if that's part of the sentence. Um if you're charged by this by local police, you'll go to a state court. If you're convicted, you'll go to a state prison if that's part of the punishment. And some municipalities have their own courts for petty offenses and misdemeanors. So a felony is usually the more serious crime. Uh you can get more than a year in prison for a felony. Misdemeanors, punishments there can include jail, fines, or probation, petty offenses, traffic citations, basically, fines, driver's license penalties. In my state, you can't arrest somebody, you can't put handcuffs on somebody and take them to jail for a petty offense. You have to issue them a summons, which is basically just a promise to appear. So the federal judiciary has 13 circuits throughout the nation, 12 regional circuits and a DC circuit. There's federal trial courts, which are district courts, appellate courts, the courts of appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court, which is the highest court, obviously. Local court systems have trial courts and intermediate courts of appeal, and each state has a Supreme Court. New York, for whatever reason, calls its trial courts the Supreme Courts, and they have an appellate division for appeals from the trial level. The Court of Appeals is the highest court in the state. So whether it's a court of appeals in New York or a state supreme court, we refer to those as a court of last resort. And state Supreme Court rulings only apply to the state in which that Supreme Court sits. So case law is law that is established by court decisions. When it comes to court decisions, decisions made at the appellate or Supreme Court level apply to all the lower courts in that jurisdiction. For example, if a state Supreme Court rules that officers must identify themselves prior to using deadly force, that rule would apply to every court in that state except the federal courts. The goal here is stability and predictability, just so that people are treating similar situations the same way everywhere. So the 60s and 70s had a ton of U.S. Supreme Court cases that changed policing and expanded civil rights of citizens, like Miranda v. Arizona, Terry v. Ohio, Map versus Ohio, etc. I'll be going over those as we progress in this podcast. And the federal courts handle stuff like patent, trademark, uh, and certain cases involving the federal government. So courts are also divided by civil and criminal matters. The civil matters would be torts, which is basically a civil wrong, an intentional negligence or strict liability tort. Contracts, probate property, and all other non-criminal legal matters are litigated in the civil courts. Designation of the parties is different also. So somebody who files a lawsuit is a civil lawsuit is called the plaintiff, and whoever's being accused of of violating the law or injuring that person or party is known as a defendant. Criminal cases, the government is the person filing the case, so it's either people versus or US versus or state of Colorado versus whatever the name of the defendant is, and then obviously the person that's being charged or tried is the defendant. So answers to the questions I asked, lights and sirens, when people run code is what it's called. When they're running with lights and siren, uh departments typically refer to it either as code 10 or code 3. I worked for departments, one of them called it code 10, one of them called it code 3. Uh usually it's not used a whole lot. Like cops' days aren't filled with calls where they have to run using emergency equipment to get there as as quick as possible on every single call. There's a lot of liability that can occur when you're running code, especially if you're not doing it reasonably or with due regard for the safety of citizens. We had chase policies at at the agencies that I that I worked at, which basically said if the person in the car hasn't committed a serious felony with a weapon or seriously injured somebody, you're not going to chase them. They didn't want us out there chasing kids that had stolen cars that were joyriding. Uh the risk to the public is just too great, especially if it's the middle of the day. And you see people chase cop chases all the time on TV in the middle of the day, and it's just it's so dangerous. It is so dangerous when these people are running from the police. Um sometimes if you know if somebody's uh being actively assaulted or or there's a reason to get there quickly to save a life or catch the bad guy, of course you're gonna you're gonna use lights and siren, but uh other times you just you don't need it. You can you can use the lights and siren to get through an intersection and then shut it down and just get there as as quickly as possible, as long as you're driving with due regard. Because people freak out when you're running code, to be honest. Like if I had people slam their brakes on right in front of me. I've had them, I'm trying to pass them on the left and they pull over to the left. Um it's just it's there's a lot of stuff that plays into it that makes it really dangerous. And there's sometimes, you know, like in the middle of the night when there's no traffic and there's a burglary in progress at a business, you're probably not gonna run lights and siren because you can get there quickly enough, and you probably want to sneak up on the bad guy and catch him in the act. So there are different things that happen when you run code. I was sitting at a stoplight one time. Uh there was another officer calling for help. Sounded pretty emergent. I turned my lights and siren on, crept through the intersection, took off, got about two blocks away, and they got on the radio and said, Hey, everybody can cancel, we have enough cops here, everything's fine, everything's changed, we're good. So I just shut my lights down and I drove off. Uh the shift commander called me in and said a citizen had complained that I used my lights just to get through a red light because I didn't want to sit there and wait for the red light to change. I explained what happened, the shift commander, he was already kind of aware. Um, and it so I know what it looked like to a citizen. Like this cop is just he's just gonna use the lights and siren just to get through the light. Hey, look, I get I had a nine-hour shift ahead of me, and I wasn't in any hurry um to go through lights on regular patrol, right? I mean, that's when you catch a lot of violators, and we is when you're sitting at a at a red light, we're just watching traffic. So understand that when you see something strange like that, it's there's usually an explanation for it. Um and in my case, there was. So the other question was why do cops enforce some things all the time and why do they let other things slide? Well, that's that's the discretion that I talked about in the last podcast. That's why departments try so hard to recruit common sense people who know when and how to use discretion. Um usually there's a discretion question in an oral board when you're trying to get a job as a cop, they'll give you a scenario, ask you how to handle it, and then they'll keep changing the scenario, making it different, and just seeing how you're going to change your decision to handle that call. Excuse me. Um, the position during a traffic stop, it just depends on the department, how they train it. The departments I was trained at, you stand in front of the driver's side door in the back. Um, so that that puts the driver at a position of disadvantage, but lets you you're able to see inside the car, you can see the driver, and it forces them to turn around and deal with you while they're looking, while they're craning their neck to the back to look at you. And it just it gives you a door post there for possible cover if you need it, and the ability to maybe slam the door if the driver's gonna try to get out and assault you. Other agencies teach to stand to the front and left of the driver so that they can look through the windshield and see what the driver's doing with their hands and and see everything that's in the car. Um they claim that that puts them at an advantage because they can kick the door shut and they have that door post for cover. So uh uh if if a agency gives people preferences, I would I would prefer to stand kind of behind the driver. Um and again, the the traffic stops are one of the most dangerous things that cops do on a daily basis. You d have no idea who you're pulling over. You don't know if this person's wanted, if they just killed somebody or robbed somebody. Um you don't know what their intentions are, if they're gonna plan on taking you out, or if they just want to, you know, pull a gun on you so that you kill them. You just don't know what people are going through on a daily basis. So uh there it's a it's a very dangerous situation to be in. So that's all I have for today. Uh I thank you for listening. And the next episode is gonna cover the criminal justice system, its components and functions. So thank you and take care.