SCOTUS

 

SCOTUS background

The present-day Supreme Court of the United States otherwise referred to as "SCOTUS" is a court made up of nine justices that serve until they die or retire. They obtain the highest level of authority in regard to any and all laws of the United States of America and they are in charge of evaluating the constitutionality of those laws. This Judicial Branch is also tasked with the duty to monitor the Executive and Legislative Branches of the Government. 

Learned Information Regarding SCOTUS

One thing that I learned by further looking into the Early Supreme Court is that there were originally only six justices instead of nine. George Washington signed the Judiciary Act of 1789, which created the foundation for our current system, allowing six justices to serve on this court until death or their choice to retire. This court had its first meeting on February 2, 1790, after the first meeting was rescheduled due to transportation difficulties of some of the Justices. The first meetings of the Early SCOTUS were mostly a way for the Justices to work out the organizational components of their new roles. Following shortly after, the SCOTUS made its first ruling on August 3, 1791.

Biggest Takeaway

The biggest takeaway from diving into the Supreme Court is the overall power that they hold in the Government. SCOTUS has the absolute power tasked with monitoring the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government. This is a major role in contributing to the safety and the legality of the choices the other branches might make. It is essential that we have a checking system in our Government so no branch or person goes unchecked. This system keeps our country from turning into a dictatorship and it allows for the protection of the people which is why it is so important. As long as the Judicial Branch takes its role seriously, it can be the most important component in the current system. 

Surprising Aspect of the Government 

The most surprising thing I learned about SCOTUS was that the number of Supreme Court Justices has fluctuated six times in history. With a high of ten Justices and a low of six, the SCOTUS has gone back and forth many times to create the perfect number. However, at the end of the day, it makes sense that the final number is nine because it allows for there to be decisions in every situation. In other words, it is impossible for any decision to be undecided or left in a split decision. Nine Justices also allows for a discussion with a variety of opinions without pushing the line of being too chaotic. 

Changing my View

The video really changed my perspective by showing how many cases the Supreme Court has to see every year. The video starts showing that there are thousands of petitions sent every year, which is very interesting because it shows that there are so many more cases that need review than we realize. Supreme Court cases seem to be very few so it is very eye-opening to see how much sorting goes on behind the scenes. It is really easy to critique decisions that the Government has to make, but in reality, we only get a narrow scope of the things that they see and what they are given in order to make decisions. This just goes to show that the Supreme Court has really hard decisions to make in regard to which cases they will hear out and which they won't because of the large quantity they are given each year.