Blog Post #2: The Supreme Court

I did not know much about The Supreme Court before watching these videos other than a basic description of what it was and knowing that they uphold the constitution while making the most important decisions in America. I learned that, The Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial body on earth. When a body has this much power, it can be scary because they have the power to decide people's fate. The legitimacy of the Supreme Court comes from the constitution, but the power depends on the public faith. This is a very important thing to remind the public because even though the Supreme Court has a lot of power, they only get that from the public. 

In the history of the Supreme Court, there have been about 100 justices serving an average of sixteen years. There are certain positions within the Supreme Court such as chief justice. John Marshall was one of the most influential chief justice's. He was elected in 1801 and under his power, the court asserted, "the greatest of all judicial powers, striking down an act of Congress as unconstitutional." 

Another interesting thing I learned from the two videos assigned was that the Supreme Court receives more than 100 new cases every week equaling a total of about 7,000 cases per year. These cases are sorted through and delivered to the nine judges of the Supreme court and tested in a trial court. When making the final vote on cases, the nine are left alone in a room without law clerks or secretaries to debate their opinions. The final step is writing an opinion piece on the legal reasons of the case and releasing them to the public. The final step exercises the first amendment, freedom of the press.

The most important take away I took from the videos about the Supreme Court were: their ultimate power depends on the public's faith, you have to be extremely smart and hard-working to be on the court due to the amount of work, and it is an essential part of our political system. Even though the videos were outdated a bit and things have changed a lot since then, I feel as though they did a great job of educating the audience on the framework of the Supreme Court.  

The most surprising thing I learned about the Supreme Court was that they make their final decision without any secretaries or law clerks. That means that to be apart of the nine, you have to be very trusted, care a lot about history and politics, and stand your ground on what you think is in the best interest of the public. 

The video made me realize that the public is more involved in the Supreme Court than I thought. Also, that the people on the court matter and that's why voting is so important so the people you support can make decisions you agree with.