Supreme Court

 After reading the History Channel overview and watching the videos, I learned a few things about the Supreme Court I didn’t already know. I learned who the first justices were under the first Chief Justice, John Jay, and how William Howard Taft is the only person to serve as both president and Chief Justice. Another piece of information I learned is the history of court seating. The seat number on the court changed from anywhere between five and ten before settling on nine in 1869. One crucial case I found interesting was Mapp vs. Ohio (1961). This case held that evidence obtained legally cannot be used in criminal cases, which I didn’t know beforehand. 

The most important takeaway point about the Supreme Court is how they refer back to The Constitution. The people who wrote The Constitution continue to guide us as a nation today, helping solve our problems that occur over 200 years later. I know that seems like a common-sense piece of information, but it’s fascinating how that foundation is still present in a completely different time. Another close second takeaway for me was learning about certiorari. Every petition, whether high-priced legal counsel files it or whether it’s written by some prisoner sitting in jail, gets the same individual consideration. It’s crazy to think about, given the size of our country and the number of petitions the court receives.

The most surprising thing I learned was how many cases the court receives. They get over a hundred cases a week and about 7,000 a year. Most are certiorari petitions, and very few of them are accepted for consideration. Another surprising thing I learned was how long an opinion could be (up to 80 or more pages) and the intense process it goes through before it’s released. Something else I thought was cool is how every time the justices meet or before they go on the bench, each justice shakes every other justices’ hand. 

The video changed the way I thought of the Supreme Court through the concept of secrecy. Everyone thinks the Supreme Court is some secret because people view it as a legislature. However, a legislature doesn’t produce all the reasons in public. Whereas a judiciary, a court, has no secrets because it’s all out there in the opinions they publish. I used to see the Supreme Court as some big, secretive group, but it’s people simply thinking of solutions.