Blog Post #2: The Supreme Court

    

    The Supreme Court of the United States, is the highest level of court in our nation. It consists of one Chief Justice and currently 8 Justices. As a court, the nine justices make decisions on around 100 cases a year that are sent up from the lower courts. They have made historic decisions that have shaped our nation, such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954) which overturned the “separate but equal” decision of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and led to desegregation in schools. Other famous cases such as Miranda v. Arizona (1966) which established citizen’s Miranda Rights, which police officers must read to a suspect prior to questioning them. These decisions have set precedents in all aspects of the American people’s lives and helped shape society today.
    Prior to watching the videos, I was unaware of the level of cases that were sent to the Supreme Court annually. I only have heard of specific cases and always just assumed that they choose cases that surround popular issues in society. This mindset however was proven wrong, as the video explained that not only does the court go through a magnitude of cases a year, but that the justices also must wait for issues to be brought to them in the form of a case appeal. In addition, I learned that each justice has a team of individuals with legal experience who help them to go through each case and determine which ones the justices will discuss and rule over.
    The most important take-away for me was a new understanding of the Supreme Court. The video dissects the full process that a case goes through if chosen by the Supreme Court. The case is first discussed among the nine justices. Each Justice comes into the conversation with their own thoughts and then discusses in order to potentially change the mind of their peers or point out a different perspective of its state of constitutionality. The case is then argued in front of all nine justices in a public courtroom. Surprisingly, these cases have only one hour for oral arguments, where each side is allocated a half an hour to present their arguments. The justices during this time ask questions which often have one of two purposes, for clarification or as a way of attempting to have another justice change their thought process. Once finished, the justices then decide and then one is tasked to write a brief, which is a much longer process full of corrections, redrafting, and compromise. In all, this video showed me just how complex the courts truly are and how many stages just one case goes through to reach a decision. I always thought of them as a intimidating group, picking and choosing which issues they wanted to make decisions on. I never knew the full workings of the court system or all the checks and balances that are in place, such as the re-drafting of the final decision and the compromise that they have to do with one another in order to publish a final decision. Overall, this video was eye-opening about the innerworkings of our court system.
    Prior to watching the videos, I was unaware of the level of cases that were sent to the Supreme Court annually. I only have heard of specific cases and always just assumed that they choose cases that surround popular issues in society. This mindset however was proven wrong, as the video explained that not only does the court go through a magnitude of cases a year, but that the justices also must wait for issues to be brought to them in the form of a case appeal. In addition, I learned that each justice has a team of individuals with legal experience who help them to go through each case and determine which ones the justices will discuss and rule over.
    The most important take-away for me was a new understanding of the Supreme Court. The video dissects the full process that a case goes through if chosen by the Supreme Court. The case is first discussed among the nine justices. Each Justice comes into the conversation with their own thoughts and then discusses in order to potentially change the mind of their peers or point out a different perspective of its state of constitutionality. The case is then argued in front of all nine justices in a public courtroom. Surprisingly, these cases have only one hour for oral arguments, where each side is allocated a half an hour to present their arguments. The justices during this time ask questions which often have one of two purposes, for clarification or as a way of attempting to have another justice change their thought process. Once finished, the justices then decide and then one is tasked to write a brief, which is a much longer process full of corrections, redrafting, and compromise. In all, this video showed me just how complex the courts truly are and how many stages just one case goes through to reach a decision. I always thought of them as a intimidating group, picking and choosing which issues they wanted to make decisions on. I never knew the full workings of the court system or all the checks and balances that are in place, such as the re-drafting of the final decision and the compromise that they have to do with one another in order to publish a final decision. Overall, this video was eye-opening about the innerworkings of our court system.