The History and the Workings of the Supreme Court

 Unfortunately, I do not know much about the Supreme Court. I know that once you are on the Supreme Court, your term does not end unless by impeachment. They also focus on the law and when it shall be applied. After watching the two videos on the history and workings of the Supreme Court, I found them interesting, as well as some key takeaways from the videos. 

 

One of my favorite quotes in the first video is from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: "We are quiet, but it is the quiet of a storm center." The Supreme Court looks at many different cases, and although they are quiet during the decision of the case, the aftermath is what causes the storm. In all of America, there have been just over a hundred Supreme Court Justices, averaging at about 16 years for their term. Keeping in mind, the Supreme Court has existed for over 200 years. Thanks to John Marshall and the Marbury v. Madison case, we now view the Supreme Court as a co-equal branch of government. 

The Supreme Court receives around one hundred new cases a week, totaling up to around seven thousand a year. Only accepting one hundred a year, the Supreme Court needs to ask if the law was used properly and if it's constitutional. 

What I found interesting is that each of the nine justices will work separately with law clerks and secretaries during cases but then will work all together when the case is brought up to the Supreme Court. Another fact I found interesting is that a Justice's term is not over and once you are appointed you are in that position for life. 

A thing I found surprising is that to have a President be in his position you have ballots and voting. But for the Justice, the President will decide who is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and you can not vote or use a ballot box for them, so you really have to trust whoever is the President at the time. To me, that would put a lot of stress because you will get backlash from people in the United States and sometimes they do not realize that Justice's all are people as well. 

Lastly, the amount of work they have to do seems unimaginable to me, getting seven thousand cases a year and only choosing one hundred out of all of those must be hard. Knowing what these people have to go through is really tough and I can not do it myself so I applaud those who can, especially because of their term being lifelong.