The Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court is the most powerful court in the United States. Although the power rests in the public faith, the Supreme Court follows the Constitution. Being someone who doesn't necessarily take interest in this side of politics, I found this video extremely educational and informative. It was very interesting to me to take a deeper look into the three branches of government and the important role each branch has. 

    The judicial branch interprets the laws to decide if they are constitutional. The judicial branch includes local, state, and regional courts. Lower courts can disagree on how a case should be decided. I was unaware that the court has 9 justices who are appointed by the president and approved by the senate. I found it very interesting that these justices serve for life. I found most interesting the explanation of the processes which the court must go through to come to a decision and even argue a decision that has already been made. A decision in the court is made when 4 of the justices, which means the majority, agree on an outcome. The Supreme Court takes on the responsibility of reviewing other cases presented by smaller courts. It receives about 10,000 cases a year but only about 80 are chosen. This small number is extremely selective, as the group only takes the most pressing and important cases.

    So how does one bring a case to the Supreme Court? The case which has been brought to the court had to have been appealed by a lower court in order to make its way to the Supreme Court. At the conference, the cases which have come to the Supreme Court are reviewed and the 9 justices decide if it is important enough to make it to the big stage. Each justice decides their own case and they meet each week to decide which ones will be rejected or denied. The justices then speak about their specific subject in the courtroom where an answer is given. 

(Pictured above are the current 9 justices of the Supreme Court)

https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/justices.aspx

    The next step is the arguing. The justices have about an hour long "argument," discussing their thoughts on the topic at hand. They ask certain questions about the topic. By having these hard conversations, the court is able to come to a decision or a "verdict." Although a draft of the decision is made, this does not mean the case it put to rest. It is then revisited weeks after the initial meeting, where after having time to think, some justices may switch their opinions. After this meeting, a final draft of the verdict is made and released. 

(Above is a picture from when the draft of the verdict of Roe v. Wade was leaked. People gathered outside of the Supreme Court to protest the verdict.)

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-07439f9fc4542f1500ab78dfd34036b1

    I am not someone who is very interested in politics, but this video gave me such a better understanding of the roles of the people who work in the Supreme Court and why each person is crucial to coming to a final decision. I enjoyed learning more about this topic because I live extremely close to the Supreme Court and have even been inside of it without really knowing its purpose.