Supreme Court Video Reflection

Outside The Supreme Court 

After watching the Supreme Court Video and learning what the Supreme Court does my view on the Supreme Court changed tremendously. The Supreme Court is a 200-year-old institution made up of 9 justices and is the most powerful branch of government. The Court draws its power to tell the president and states what they can and cannot do. Justices serve an average of 16 years, though historically it has only been about 100 years on average. This power traces back to John Marshall in 1801 with Marbury v. Madison and later the Dred Scott case, which was one of the biggest things the Court dealt with, along with the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court receives about 7,000 cases a year but does not have to take a case if it does not want to — this power to pick and choose cases is called certiorari. All 9 justices meet and discuss all the cases and how to handle them. The Court must wait for cases to come to it rather than seeking them out, unlike the legislature.

During a trial, each person gets 30 minutes, and there are 3 arguments: the planned argument, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave. Then all 9 judges vote on the case, and one writes a written opinion stating the legal reasoning; opinion drafts take 4 weeks with revisions going on for months, with the majority opinion becoming precedent. Judges see the willingness to protect the people, and there is no police force for rulings — people are willing to follow when the ruling is reasonable. The 19th Amendment overrules the Supreme Court, and Citizens United allows people to give as much money as they want to a politician without having to disclose where the money comes from. Members of Congress have repeatedly introduced proposed constitutional amendments regarding Citizens United. Criminal cases involve the government charging someone with breaking the law to punish them, while civil cases involve private properties or individuals suing each other.

The Court Room

AI DISCLOSURE: AI was used in a limited way. I watched a video and took notes. I then used those notes on the Supreme Court and put them into AI. I used Claude AI to help me clean up the text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images with end captions.