The Federal Judicial Power is provided for by Article 3 of the United States Constitution. In order for a case to come under the Federal Judiciary the plaintiff must have standing, the case or controversy must be ripe for review and the case cannot be moot, or stale. Further, the Federal Judiciary will not accept political questions.
RIPENESS
Ripeness is a question of whether a federal court may grant pre-enforcement review of a statute or regulation.
EX: Let's say there is a statute that would punish any citizen for wearing a postal worker's uniform or badge unless for use in artistic expression and is only then allowed if the postal worker is presented in a positive light. Steve writes a play entitled "Newman" that presents a postal worker as a fat, slow, conniving weasel and Steve wants to sue to get an injunction to keep the law from being enforced against him or anyone involved in his play. This case would not be ripe because Steve had not been punished under the law. He must wait to see if the law was enforced against him and how.
To get pre-enforcement review Steve would have to show that hardship would be suffered without the review. Steve could not show hardship because he has not been punished. Because he continued with the play his free speech rights were not affected and the statute had yet to affect him.
Steve would also have to show the fitness of the issues and the record for judicial review. To determine whether the issues and record are fit the court will ask; Do we have everything we need here? Is there any reason to wait? In Steve's case we don't know how the statute will be enforced because it has not been used yet. The court doesn't know how Steve is affected because it won't know if "Newman" would even violate the statute and if so, it is unknown to what degree Steve and anyone involved in "Newman" would be punished. Thus, the court would not proceed for ripeness purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment