The Supreme Court


By definition, The Supreme Court is "the highest tribunal in the Nation for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution or the laws of the United States." 

Previously, I didn't know much about the Supreme Court since I never really went out of my way to learn it once it was taught in my classes. By reading the overview of the Supreme Court by the History Channel, I've learned a lot more about this part of our government. 

Something I didn't know but learned about the Supreme Court through this article is that the chief justice presides over impeachment trials against the President in the Senate. I already knew that the chief justice is the head of the Supreme Court, but it was interesting to learn that they are involved in impeachment cases when the president is the one that confirms or denies their position in the court. 


The most important takeaway point about the Supreme Court is that even though the court's justices may interpret the Constitution differently and disagree, they all share the same basic objective of creating a government with as much equal power as possible. In the video, Justice Kennedy, Stevens, Scalia, and Ginsburg agreed upon, the original Constitution originally didn't include minorities. It is up to them, to interpret the meaning of the Constitution and still apply it to today's modern standards.  

One of the most surprising things I learned is that more than a hundred cases are sent to the Supreme Court every week. That is about seven thousand cases a year being sent to the court. Before watching and reading about it, I wondered how many cases the Supreme Court got. I was also surprised that the court only takes a hundred of these cases annually. There are a lot of cases to take on with the court being comprised of so few justices, as well as their beliefs and values being different. 


The video changed the way I thought of the Supreme Court. Initially, I believed that those in the Supreme Court immediately came to a ruling together as a group. Now, I know that there is also independent work involved in the court. Even one of the justices said, "Being appointed to the Supreme Court is akin to being struck by lightning." Each of the justices has an exorbitant number of cases to look through, and they still manage. After learning more, the videos and readings made me view the Supreme Court as a place full of hardworking individuals who continuously try to make our nation a better place.  


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