Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman has said the 2008 – 2009 term should see the Supreme Court striving to be ‘even more conservative.’
‘It’s easy to hark back to the glory days of Nicolaou and Norris, but we shouldn’t forget recent decisions like Osayande, TD, O’ Donnell v South Dublin County Council, Kavanagh v Govenor of Mountjoy Prison and of course, the Sinnott case.’
‘There are still plenty of areas to be conservative in. Anything to do with the allocation of resources and straight off alarm bells are ringing. We’ve shown we can stand up to the unenumerated rights lobby. We’ve shown that we can reverse liberal decisions in favour of Travellers and that we frown upon transexuals seeking to change their birth register. With regard to homosexuals, if they think DeValera meant them when he said ‘the marital family’ then they’ve got another think coming.’
Mr Justice Hardiman is credited with the maxim: ‘a Supreme Court must always keep the floodgates in mind.’
The majority of the Irish Supreme Court admires their counterparts in the United States.
‘They have increased their workload incredibly this year, hearing the usual two cases in the morning, but then returning for a third after lunch,’ said Hardiman J.
Last year the court decided the fewest cases since the 1953-54 term, but there was an emphasis on quality rather than quantity.
Its most notable decision was the overturning of the District of Columbia’s handgun ban. The court interpreted the Second Amendment to mean that everyone had the right to cherish a gun; membership of a militia was not necessary.
The court also voted 7 to 2 that the Protect Act 2003, which makes it a crime to offer child pornography, regardless of whether the depictions are of real children or computer-generated images, could be squared with the First Amendment. In both of these cases Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion.
In another stark decision, punitive damages against Exxon Mobil for damage caused by a supertanker oil spill in 1989 were reduced from $2.5 billion to $500 million.
There were further decisions on the humane administration of the death penalty and reduction of the right of Mexicans on death row to be granted new hearings.
The court’s liberal wing scored a victory when a majority decided against the death penalty as the punishment for raping young girls. Justice Kennedy wrote that death was ‘a disproportionate penalty for even so devastating a crime when the death of the victim did not result.’ Predictably, Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts didn’t agree, but they took it on the chin.
Mr Justice Hardiman hopes to see the Supreme Court bench embellished in the furture by the presence of Mary McAleese, who has just received a higher diploma in canon law from the Milltown Institute, and Mr Michael McDowell. ‘Michael deserves to be catapulted like I was,’ the judge said.
Ireland has the fewest number of judges per 100,000 population and spends less on its court system relative to national wealth than any other state in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, according to the Commission for the Efficiency of Justice. Unsurpringly for a country whose Taoiseach receives a higher salary than the President of the United States, Ireland’s judges are among the best paid in Europe, earning seven times the average wage.
Ireland scores very well in its provision for legal aid.
‘It’s easy to hark back to the glory days of Nicolaou and Norris, but we shouldn’t forget recent decisions like Osayande, TD, O’ Donnell v South Dublin County Council, Kavanagh v Govenor of Mountjoy Prison and of course, the Sinnott case.’
‘There are still plenty of areas to be conservative in. Anything to do with the allocation of resources and straight off alarm bells are ringing. We’ve shown we can stand up to the unenumerated rights lobby. We’ve shown that we can reverse liberal decisions in favour of Travellers and that we frown upon transexuals seeking to change their birth register. With regard to homosexuals, if they think DeValera meant them when he said ‘the marital family’ then they’ve got another think coming.’
Mr Justice Hardiman is credited with the maxim: ‘a Supreme Court must always keep the floodgates in mind.’
The majority of the Irish Supreme Court admires their counterparts in the United States.
‘They have increased their workload incredibly this year, hearing the usual two cases in the morning, but then returning for a third after lunch,’ said Hardiman J.
Last year the court decided the fewest cases since the 1953-54 term, but there was an emphasis on quality rather than quantity.
Its most notable decision was the overturning of the District of Columbia’s handgun ban. The court interpreted the Second Amendment to mean that everyone had the right to cherish a gun; membership of a militia was not necessary.
The court also voted 7 to 2 that the Protect Act 2003, which makes it a crime to offer child pornography, regardless of whether the depictions are of real children or computer-generated images, could be squared with the First Amendment. In both of these cases Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion.
In another stark decision, punitive damages against Exxon Mobil for damage caused by a supertanker oil spill in 1989 were reduced from $2.5 billion to $500 million.
There were further decisions on the humane administration of the death penalty and reduction of the right of Mexicans on death row to be granted new hearings.
The court’s liberal wing scored a victory when a majority decided against the death penalty as the punishment for raping young girls. Justice Kennedy wrote that death was ‘a disproportionate penalty for even so devastating a crime when the death of the victim did not result.’ Predictably, Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts didn’t agree, but they took it on the chin.
Mr Justice Hardiman hopes to see the Supreme Court bench embellished in the furture by the presence of Mary McAleese, who has just received a higher diploma in canon law from the Milltown Institute, and Mr Michael McDowell. ‘Michael deserves to be catapulted like I was,’ the judge said.
Ireland has the fewest number of judges per 100,000 population and spends less on its court system relative to national wealth than any other state in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, according to the Commission for the Efficiency of Justice. Unsurpringly for a country whose Taoiseach receives a higher salary than the President of the United States, Ireland’s judges are among the best paid in Europe, earning seven times the average wage.
Ireland scores very well in its provision for legal aid.
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