Blog Post #2

History of the United States Supreme Court

In my Media Law and Literacy class, I have learned a lot about the Supreme Court that I thought was very interesting and had never heard before. After reading the article, I've come to realize that the Supreme Court is certainly the most powerful and influential judicial system in the world.

Watching the video was also an eye-opening experience. The justices speak about what their experiences being part of the Supreme Court for the first time were some interesting perspectives to me. They talked about what it was like during their first days on the job, the first cases they argued, and being put in such a position of authority in this country.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest-ranking court in the country, and it represents the judicial branch of the government. It has the authority to determine if any and all laws are constitutional or not, and establish precedents of federal law. This authority is an active and important part of the checks and balances system that keeps the three branches of government in check and limit their power.

An interesting piece of information presented by the sources is that the very first case the Supreme Court ever argued was a simple financial dispute, which I thought was unexpected. The video had also shown how the justices approach the issue of choosing which cases to argue, and which ones to ignore. This has to be done due to the sheer amount of cases that are sent up to the SCOTUS, so they have to choose the most important and notable ones.

How it works is if the Supreme Court does not argue a case that was sent to them by the lower court, that implicitly means that the Supreme Court upholds the decision made by the lower court. Many people will choose to argue with the decision that the state court or court of appeals made by sending their case to the SCOTUS, but very few will have their cases heard at the very highest level.