Blog Post #2

The Supreme Court

The Current Supreme Court Justices

The United States Supreme Court, or the USSC, is the highest court in the United States of America, and holds the greatest judiciary power. Justices serve an average of sixteen years, each of them being assisted by a small staff of law clerks and secretaries. There are currently nine Supreme Court Justices:

    1. Justice John Roberts, 

    2. Justice Clarence Thomas, 

    3. Justice Samuel Alito, 

    4. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 

    5. Justice Elena Kagan, 

    6. Justice Neil Gorsuch, 

    7. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, 

    8. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and

    9. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The Supreme Court interprets our country's 200-year-old Constitution and applies the interpretations to cases brought to the court, with the goal of keeping the United States the freest nation in the world. The Constitution expounds on the ideals and values of our country. As the second video about the Supreme Court states, "the power of the court is the power of trust earned - the turns of the American people." This statement is so effective in describing the great stature, presence, and control that the Supreme Court holds over the country.

Beginning of the U.S. Constitution

I plan on going into law, which augmented my interest of the two videos that we watched, and their overarching topic of the Supreme Court. It was fascinating to learn about what the Supreme Court Justices do, and the different sides to their job. One fact that I found to be astounding was that petitions arrive by the thousands year after year. More than one-hundred cases a week show up on the steps of the Supreme Court - most of them are written arguments that a lower court was incorrect, or amiss, with their decision. The Justices meet weekly, in order to decide which cases the Supreme Court will look into further and make decisions on. An important piece of information that I learned that holds the Supreme Court to be true is that every petition receives individual, equal consideration. The facts of cases are established in the Trial Courts, which leaves it up to the Supreme Court to consider the question of the law, its place in the case of question, and its position in the forever-proceeding cases.

U.S. Supreme Court

One piece of new information that I plan on researching more on is the Oral Argument - one hour of "high drama" (Part || Video). The Oral Argument is the time for the Justices to ask the hard questions that are raised from the briefs. A simple way of putting it: the Oral Argument is when "the court is having a conversation with itself" (Part || Video). As Justice Kennedy put it, when speaking about the Oral Argument, "It has to make a difference. That's the passion and the power and the poetry of the law - that a rhetorical case can make a difference, because abstract principles have to be applied in a real life situation" (Part || Video). The Oral Argument was focused on so strongly in the video that I became engrossed in the topic, and I highly look forward to learning more details about it.

After a decision has been made by the Justices on the case that they have chosen comes the Opinion writing - the most time-consuming part of the Justices' work. One Justice from the majority side will write the Opinion, and the draft will go back and forth between Justices for editing. The reason of the decision, the wording of the Opinion, and even sometimes the actual decision of the case can change after the Justices have finished their editing of the draft. Other Justices may draft their own Opinion - whether that be to explain the minority opinion, or because they agree with the majority opinion but disagree with the reasoning thereof.

The work of the Justices is art - it is austere yet intricate, and forever exciting and raising curiosity. Before watching the two videos, my understanding of the Justices' jobs was slight. I was remarkably surprised to learn how hefty the work is that they do. Listening to some of the Justices being interviewed about the different processes that they go through and the different areas of their work opened up my mind to how difficult their job is, and how much pressure they must feel every day. Their work is "interpretive philosophy", and they help to make up an entire branch of the government. Without the Supreme Court, our country would truly not be what it is today. Learning more about the Supreme Court has led me to become even more excited about becoming a lawyer, and with that, joining a group of people that fight to keep this country one of the most influential, leading, and freest nations in the world.