Blog #2: The Supreme Court

    

After watching PART I and PART II of the Supreme Court videos, I have many new insights into one of the most important systems in our country. I find it incredibly intriguing that a document created on the foundations of our country can hold such precedence in our judicial system, and I am glad that we have created a system that upholds those values. I had prior knowledge about the structure of the Supreme Court and the number of justices, as that is something I learned throughout high school. Recently, I have been keeping up with news around controversy within lengths of terms, and I find this debate to be an important one as it relates to the value of experience versus the value of new perspectives. While other positions within the government have term limits, Supreme Court justices can serve for as long as they choose, causing some conversation about the ethics and efficiency of that, given that they are appointed by the president. 

  Given that I am not a person who has studied the judicial system in detail, I learned a lot of new and valuable information. For one, I did not know that the Supreme Court is presented with about 7,000 cases per year, and only take about 100 of them. In hind sight, this makes sense given the importance of the cases that the Supreme Court take to trial. Additionally, I learned a lot about the situation of justices being split within opinion, and how that changes while multiple drafts are created of the official court opinion. I had never looked into how complicated that process is and how much work goes into it. 

 One of my biggest takeaways was that the general public did not always accept the Supreme Court and support it because of how controversial the decisions can be, especially when it came to the abolition of slavery. Thus, John Marshall gained the respect of the general public by reminding everyone of the purpose of the court, to uphold and make decisions based on the Constitution. Similarly to the controversy around Supreme Court justice term limits, I find it notable how our country is constantly changing and adapting to new social, economic, and political circumstances and how in turn our judicial system is adjusting as well, while always staying true to keeping with the Constitution. These videos have allowed for me to reflect on my own role as a contributor to the United States systems, and how I can do my part of staying educated on these issues to ensure that I am holding the judicial system to a high standard.