Blog Post #2: The Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court is the head of the judicial branch of the U.S. government. It is comprised of nine Supreme Court Justices. The Supreme Court was first established in 1789 by the Constitution and organized by Congress. 

    Growing up in school, I did not learn much about how the Supreme Court operated. In watching these videos (Part 1 & Part 2) and reading the History article, I learned many things I never knew about the Supreme Court and how it works. 

   

    The biggest thing that I learned from watching the videos was how the Justices interacted with each other. It is something so simple, but I never really thought about it when hearing about the Supreme court and its cases. It really helped to change how I look at the Justices - hearing them talk during cases, listening to the questions they asked, and watching how they developed their opinions. In the video, some of the Justices talk about how they interact at their conferences, where everyone can speak, and there is a time for everyone to weigh in on their decision for a case. The video also talks about how, during the time when an attorney is arguing a case, there is still a sense of conversation because the Justices are asking questions. These facts about how the Justices communicate and interact to come to a decision on a case were eye-opening to me. 

 

    The most surprising thing for me in the video was how nervous the Justices are when a case comes to them. The fact that the Justices still get nervous surprises me. Because you would think at that level, they would be prepared for anything. I think it shows that there are humans making these decisions and not some high-up power that we could never imagine. It really helped to humanize the Justices and make me look more into how they come to the decision they do. However, this may raise the question about what personal or biased feelings they may bring to decisions – they are human, so it’s very hard to be impartial. 

 

    My most important takeaway from everything I heard and read about the Supreme Court is how, even though the Justices come in with a clear thought of how they will vote when they enter the room to deliberate, their minds could possibly be changed. This is important because it can show that if an argument is good enough, it could sway the opinion, showing the importance of a good argument.   

 

    After watching the video, my views on the Supreme Court have not changed. I definitely did learn a good amount about the Supreme Court from the video, but I still view it the same. I always believed the Supreme Court was important in maintaining the rights that people have. I still believe that is the case because the rules or decisions that come from the Justices help to set a way that certain types of legal issues are handled. I think overall, the Supreme Court is a very important part of the government, and the jobs it does and how the Justices handle those jobs is a very important thing.