The Supreme Court

My Background with the Supreme Court

Everyone in a public school is required to take a class in which the Constitution is analyzed and discussed. I've spent many hours writing about the Bill of Rights, as well as learning about the history behind each piece of the Constitution. Our guidelines to the government, at the time, were quite unique when the Founding Fathers wrote them up. The legislative, executive, and judicial branch are all essential parts that form our government. The legislative powers, belonging to Congress, and the executive powers, residing with the President and their team, are the most well-known. When you ask a child what they want to be when they grow up, they may say President of the United States. 

What you will  never hear is a child wanting to be on the Supreme Court when they grow up. Citizens do not hear much about the Supreme Court or how it works. Even now, in college, I have learned some facts about them that I did not know before. Much more attention is paid to the better-covered parts of the government. Of course, I knew what the Supreme Court was, in terms of checks and balances, and have heard of recent cases being overturned. 

Chief Justice John Roberts

I was surprised by the idea that Justices in the Supreme Court are equivalent to judges in lower courts. I knew Justices existed, and I knew they voted in some way to determine the outcomes of court cases, but I did not realize how intense it was for lawyers to be debating in front of nine judges. For some reason, I did not actually know how the Supreme Court cases were heard, I just knew there was a vague process. I also did not know there was one Chief Justice, who oversees all operations for themselves and the other Justices. They address budgets, calendars, and public sessions and hearings. However, being a Chief Justice does not mean that their vote matters more than the others. Each Justice makes a decision separately and then their votes each count as one for the final decision. This is quite dissimilar to the single judge that most other courts have, and their rule is uncontested. 

Takeaways

The most important takeaway about the Supreme Court would be the idea that the Supreme Court cannot function without the trust of the people they govern. Public trust is crucial for the Supreme Court to operate effectively because it relies on the perception of impartiality. The court's decisions impact society at large, and public confidence ensures that its judgments are accepted as just and binding. Without trust in legitimacy, the court may struggle to uphold its role as the judicial branch in the American legal system. This distrust can be caused if the Supreme Court goes against the majority belief of what the outcome should be, or possibly historic inconsistent judgments. For example, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case from 1857, the Court ruled that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and could not be freed from slavery under Congress. As anti-slavery sentiment was strong, the Supreme Court lost a lot of
public faith with this ruling. 

Before parts one and two of the video, I felt untrustworthy of the Supreme Court. Several of the current Justices are quite old, and I feel that their age may lead them to make decisions that do not better the world of today. For example, there are many dissenters to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, of which I am one. In almost every category (excluding partisan separation), over 50% of US citizens disapproved of the overturning. This has been a growing sentiment for a while, and although Justices cannot be politically affiliated, there seems to be a large amount of opinions that polarize the nation and the Justices. After the video, I feel that I understand the evolution of the Supreme Court, and how an institution that was once a pinnacle of fairness and justice may not be anymore. I continue to be untrusting, but I also understand how the Founding Fathers developed the judiciary branch and its functions.