Blog #2: Supreme Court

 From both watching a video and reading an article about the Supreme Court, I have learned that while it  may be small in numbers--currently consisting of only nine judges--The Supreme Court is a very important and essential part of our US government.

Supreme Court Building

The Supreme Court’s job is to evaluate the laws that we have in our country and make sure that they are constitutional. Not only is it the highest federal court in the nation, but it is also the head of the judicial branch of government.

The process of evaluating if a law is constitutional or not begins with a written petition from the public. In total, the court receives around 7,000 petitions a year, and of those 7,000, they take on about 100 of them for full consideration.

Former justice Sandra Day O’Connor talks about how unique and incredible it is that the Supreme Courts gives “the same individual consideration” to petitions from both high-priced legal counsels and prisoners sitting in jail cells. It was very reassuring to hear Justice O’Connor say this, as I wasn’t aware of this prior to watching the video.

Once the Supreme Court has decided to take on a petition, they hear the cases publicly, where lawyers on both sides of the argument have thirty minutes each to defend their side. This is called “oral argument.” I did not know that lawyers were involved in this process, so I found the whole concept of oral argument to be fascinating!

A few days after this, the court meets privately to vote and make a decision. After a verdict has been reached, an "opinion" must be written by one of the justices on the majority (aka winning) side of the argument.

If the chief justice is on the majority side, they are the one to decide who writes it. The process of writing the opinion is time-consuming and extremely important because once it is released, it will affect all other cases they will rule on moving forward.

Many people obey the Supreme Court because they believe that the Supreme Court is defending the Constitution with every decision they make. From the video I watched and the article I read, I have come to realize that this trust that has been built up between the public and the Supreme Court is necessary to keep the United States government strong and to keep our nation free.