How to Strike Down an Age-Based Status Offense: Introduction

Brave & fierce lawyers such as John W. Davis & Gus Garcia have argued before the US Supreme Court on a mission to recieve justice for their clients. Their legal arguments have been crafted masterpieces that have won the US Supreme Court's favor in creating landmark cases. Davis argued on behalf of the plaintiff in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952) that the President had no authority to seize property without some enumeration under Article two or statutory authorization by congress. The US Supreme Court agreed with Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. by 6-3 majority.
In 1951, a hispanic farmer Pete Hernandez was accused of murder in a Texas town. Gus Garcia, a hispanic lawyer, was Hernandez's counsel who argued that the jury selection of all anglo-saxons was unconstitutional because no hispanics were even considered for jury duty. No hispanic in the county Hernandez was tried was able to serve on jury in over 25 years. The magistrate rejected Garcia's motion to have his client's jury reformed on the grounds that as a hispanic, Hernandez was classified as white & the jury selected was white was well. Hernandez was convicted of murder & sentenced to life in prison by the all anglo-saxon jury. All attempts to reverse Hernandez's conviction through litigation in the state courts have failed. The US Supreme Court granted certerari & held oral arguments in January of 1954. Garcia argued the "Black/White" composition of legal classification for hispanics breeded injustice & blanket discrimination as a way for anglos to oppress hispanics without making it look that way. On May 3, 1954, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that equal protection does not make exceptions for discrimination. Before Hernandez v. Texas, equal protection was mainly classified as protecting mostly African-Americans from discrimination. The Hernandez v. Texas decision opened a gate towards applying the same freedoms under English tradition to other suspect classes, not just persons of European & African descent.
Another case I wish to share is DC v. Heller in which libertarian attorney Alan Gura argued on behalf of Heller that the right to keep & bear arms is an individual right using masterpiece arguments. On June 26, 2008, the US Supreme Court ruled by 5-4 that right to keep & bear arms is an individual right. However, this fundemental right is still severly limited as lower courts hardly strike down gun control.
I Blame a corrupt & broken court system on spoil system style appointment for political reasons where judges are able to get away with making any ruling they want, regardless of what the framers intended. I'll post the arguments on my next blog.