The Backbone of the US Legal System: The Constitution The Constitution is the founding document for the United States government and is the highest law of the country.
The U. S Constitution is the backbone of the legal system which defines the structure of government, guarantees the rights to its citizens and provides the basis on which all American laws are made. No other national laws may disagree with any of the Constitution's ideology and the federal courts have jurisdiction to interpret the Constitution and evaluate the constitutionality of federal and state laws.Three of the most important features of the U. S.
legal system that one should know are: federalism; judicial review; and the administrative agencies. The first important feature of the U. S. legal system is federalism which is organized by one federal system along with fifty state systems.
A second important feature of the U. S. legal system is the judicial review system and the role of appointed judges. The U.
S. legal system is known for its system of checks and balances between the three branches of government and the important role the judiciary branch plays as an equal branch.The third feature of the U. S. legal system is the important role of administrative agencies in the daily enforcement of law and justice.
One of the most notable changes in the in the U. S. legal system in this decade has been the growth of administrative agencies in the wake of the September 11 tragedy. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is one of the agencies experiencing the largest increase as it works to keep our country safe.One of the ways DHS has impacted business is by working to provide a system of employment verification to aid employers to verify the employment status of America’s labor force. DHS has established the E-Verify section on their website “E-Verify is a voluntary program for employers, with limited exceptions.
Companies can access E-Verify online and compare an employee's Form I-9 information with over 444 million records in the SSA database, and more than 60 million records in Department of Homeland Security immigration databases.E-Verify is an essential tool for employers committed to maintaining a legal workforce, and the number of registered employers is growing by over 1,200 per week. ” (http://www. dhs.
gov/files) The United States Constitution and legal system affect the authority and function of businesses. In the United States, businesses and individuals are subject to fines and/or jail time for violating workforce laws. When businesses take an active role in enabling employees to violate laws they are subject to fines and being shutdown.For example, businesses have a responsibility to assure that all employees have a legal work status.
In some cases, undocumented employees have been able to acquire employment either through falsifying documents or by passive recruiting personnel that disregard the employment laws for their selfish benefit. Swift Meats, one of the nation’s largest meat packers of beef and pork, has recently seen the effects of what breaking the law can do to a business, when they were raided by ICE, resulting in the arrest of 1297 employees and 28 members of management identified of willfully violating workforce employment laws. Tuesday's criminal arrests came in addition to 1,297 administrative arrests of illegal aliens for immigration violations” (http://www. ice. gov/pi/ news/newsreleases/SWIFT) The DHS is trying to properly enforce residency and citizenship laws by raiding business establishments. Raids have been occurring across the United States in effort to secure the homeland in order to prevent illegal activity.
CBP officials have used questionable tactics in which many innocent victims are being detained after entering the United States, while the law grants ICE the ability to question everyone in the building they are entering if they have a warrant. The responsibility falls on the employer to assure the government that employees have a legal right to work by conducting a thorough background check and to avoid penalties from the United States government if found in violation. References http://www. dhs. gov/files/programs/gc_1185221678150. shtm http://www.
ice. gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/070711washingtondc. htm
