Blog #2: The US Supreme Court

 

In the United States, the Supreme Court has a lot of power. They interpret the Constitution and ensure that everyone has equal justice under the law. The Supreme Court resides in the Judicial branch, ensuring no one branch of government has too much power.

After watching videos Part I and Part II on the Supreme Court, it reminded me of some things I already knew about the Supreme Court and taught me some things I did not already know about the Supreme Court.

I learned that in the history of the United States, there have been just over 100 justices that served on the Supreme Court. Justices have to be nominated by the President when there is a vacancy and then the nomination is voted on by the Senate. For the nomination to be approved, there has to be a majority. Otherwise, the nomination is not approved.

The most important take-away point about the Supreme Court is that the Justices are not Gods or supreme beings. They are just people who are tasked with interpreting the Constitution and making sure that every person in the country has the opportunity for their voice to be heard if they petition a case. Justices are merely people who have dedicated their lives to helping others through their work.

The most surprising thing I learned was that every petition that is brought to the Supreme Court receives the same amount of consideration. The Supreme Court receives over 100 new cases a week, about 7,000 cases a year. With receiving such a large number of petitions, I thought that some cases would be chosen over others based on who wrote the petition, but this is not true. Every case receives the same amount of consideration, meaning that every case has the same opportunity to be heard by the Supreme Court.

The video changed the way I thought of the Supreme Court because I thought of the Justices as supreme beings who were above everyone else because of what they do. Now, I think of the Justices as mere people who have a very important job that affects a numerous number of peoples lives. The decisions Justices make are extremely important and the decisions they make can affect everyone that lives in the United States, for better or worse.