What is the role of the US Supreme Court in interpreting state laws?
The US Supreme Court has the power to interpret state laws when it is necessary to resolve a conflict between state law and the US Constitution. This power is known as judicial review and was established by the US Supreme Court in the landmark Marbury v. Madison case in 1803. The US Supreme Court can review any state law to determine whether it is constitutional. If the Court finds that the state law conflicts with the US Constitution, the law is declared unconstitutional and is therefore invalid and unenforceable within the state. For example, in the famous case of Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court declared a Texas law criminalizing abortion to be unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court can also decide whether a state law is consistent with the US Constitution, even if the law does not appear to be in conflict with the Constitution. In such cases, the Court can give an interpretation of the state law, as it did in the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case, in which the Court held that a Colorado law prohibiting businesses from denying services to people based on sexual orientation violated the US Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause because of the way it was applied. In short, the US Supreme Court has the ultimate authority to interpret state laws and ensure that they are in accordance with the US Constitution.
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