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Pros And Cons Of The Dual Court System

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A dual court system, such as the one found here in the United States, separates federal courts from state courts. According to our textbook, the dual court system “parallels federalism” (Siegel, Schmalleger & Worrall, 2015). Federalism is “the distribution of power in an organization between a central authority and the constituent units” (Federalism, n.d.). In this instance, the central authority is the federal government, and the constituent units are the individual states. Federalism allows for the government to make laws that govern all people living in the United States while allowing each state the liberty to establish their own laws. A dual court system has the advantage of protecting individual civil rights and the ability …show more content…

An example I found when looking at the pros and cons of a dual court system is the case of Miranda vs. Arizona. Based largely on his signed confession, Ernesto Miranda was convicted of violating the state statutes of kidnapping and rape. However, upon appeal to the U.S. Supreme court, the court found that the confession violated Miranda’s 5th constitutional right against self-incrimination and his 6th amendment right regarding his right to an attorney ("The Dual Court System | American Government," 2017). A side note, he was retried and found guilty on all counts even without the signed confession. This example shows that a dual court system affords individuals a check and balance system to ensure that their rights are …show more content…

I’m sure that we are all aware of the fact that it is illegal to prosecute someone a second time for the same offense after an acquittal. However, the dual court system makes it possible to try someone for a state law violation and then again for a federal violation, a situation known as the separate sovereigns’ exception to double jeopardy (Balko, 2011). A rather well-known example of this is the infamous Rodney King trials. After the officers in question were found not guilty in state court, they were then tried again in federal court and found guilty of violating King’s civil

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