We all have heard about the U.S Supreme Court in some way or another. Perhaps through the news, any U.S history class, or just general knowledge. However, not everyone understands all the responsibilities that this branch of government has to uphold and the process that must be completed with it. It is truly an important task that keeps an essential part of this government system running. All with the help of the justices that are appointed to the Supreme Court nominated by the President and approved by the Senate.
While reading the article and watching both videos about the history of the Supreme Court, I learned a lot in regards to the extensive process of what it is to decide on a court case and voicing opinions amongst the justices. Upon further research utilizing resources given to me, the video did a good job grounding the process that these justices go through in each case. I was able to relate to them on a familiar level when they discussed the methods they used to interact with each other when coming to a final decision. The fact that a simple action such as shaking hands can have a big impact on the working relationships between the justices makes that one action "real" enough for a common citizen to understand and empathize with. I think this is an important aspect to realize that there is always going to be some sort of open relationship between the governmental process and the people.
In terms of the more technical responsibilities that the Supreme Court handles, most of it is well known as the Supreme Court has the jurisdiction of all laws in the U.S. and must evaluate it in order to deem it constitutional. Which many can assume as an integral part of the system of checks and balances. It can be safely said that whoever is appointed to be a Justice must know their way around the law. Speaking about the justices there were surprising facts that I found interesting. We know that today the Supreme Court has nine justices, however, this was not always the case (no pun intended). There were some instances where only 5 to 10 justices served in different periods of time under different administrations. This just goes to show the variety of decisions being made whether it was with the intention of shaping the Court in favor of the President or just a genuine nomination.
As you can see there is a lot that goes into the structure of the Supreme Court but we must not forget that there are people just like any of us who have taken that responsibility of upholding the law which has helped shape the way the government operates.
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