The History and Workings of the U.S. Supreme Court

From watching these two embedded videos and reading an article from the History Channel, I learned what the Supreme Court consists of, what the justices do, and how their decisions have affected the past, present, and future. The most important thing about the Supreme Court is their incredible impact on protecting an American's freedom and rights.

The Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial court in the world with its power resting on public faith, independence, and partiality. Even though it has a huge reputation and is very famous, I learned a lot more about it. For instance, the court gets over seven thousand cases a year, mostly about arguing that a lower courts ruling was incorrect, but they only approve around one hundred cases! 

The Supreme Court is made up of nine justices: one chief justice and eight associate justices. They are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed or denied by the Senate These nine justices have a very important job- to interpret the two hundred year old Constitution and apply it to the cases they receive!

Fun Fact: There have been a little over one hundred Supreme Court justices since the court has been established!

 

 

Even though the Supreme Court is very official and deals with issues of national freedoms, I forget that they are still a group of people. They can disagree on topics and are allowed to change their mind after they make an initial decision. I found it shocking that they were nervous before going into oral argument. The Supreme Court is simply a group of people thinking and coming to decisions about controversial topics in order to help benefit the now and future.  

 

 

 

The video I watched compared the first time being a Supreme Court justice to being struck by lightning because the experience is so overwhelming and strange! 

 

Another cool thing I realized what that the decisions the Supreme Court makes and the opinions that influence these decisions actually mark history from today and beyond. Although there were very important decisions about civil rights and equality made during the era of the Constitution, then the important decisions made during the abolition movement, the decisions made today are still important for the future. 

Back then, "we the people" included a small part of the population, and now thanks to the decisions that the court has made, everyone is included. So, the opinions made today can help decide future cases and decide the rights of Americans.

The Constitution has been an important document in protecting American freedom since it was written. Thankfully, our Supreme Court interprets this document and applies it to hard decisions today to still protect our freedoms. 

I'm referring to this article from the History channel and the two embedded Youtube videos.