Supreme Court

 

This week in class we talked about the Supreme Court system and how it works. To be on the Supreme Court you must be nominated by the current President and confirmed by the Senate.  An appointment to the Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment, once you are appointed, you stay there until you chose to leave. This is the highest court in the land and are the most powerful when it comes to checks and balances. They are who can overturn laws made by Congress for being unconstitutional. They also have the power to overturn verdicts made by other courts below them. The Supreme Court only hears about 100 cases a year due to the high number of cases sent to them.

 

Once the justices decide on a case to take, they research if they believe anything unconstitutional has happened in the case and if they need to review the lower-case decisions. If they decide to take the case, they hear arguments and vote. The majority decides which is why it is important to have an odd number of justices.  The justices then write the concurring and dissenting opinions based on their view for the cases. 

 

When looking into the history of the Supreme Court I found it interesting to learn that during their first term they did not hear any cases. They focused only on setting up the system and how it would work. I also found it interesting that the number of Justices has changed over time. Originally there were six, a chief justice and five associate justices. At one point there were ten justices. President Franklin Roosevelt actually tried to expand the court to fifteen justices. https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-u-s-supreme-court

I think this very interesting considering the current debate about expanding the court. Biden unveils commission to study possible expansion of Supreme Court - The Washington Post

 

Overall, I feel the Supreme Court does a lot for our country when it comes to handling tough cases and I am so glad that they are here for checks and balances. Some of their most notable cases include Roe v. Wade, U.S. v. Nixon, and Obergefell v. Hodges.