After watching the video of the founding and history of the U.S Supreme Court there were a few things that I learned that I hadn't already known. Before watching the video I thought that the justices did their own thing individually but its quite the opposite. All the justices meet together, in private, and go over the cases collectively and try to resolve things by working together. The justices also enacted a system where everyone must speak at least once before anyone can speak for a second time. I found this interesting because it shows that although the justices were appointed by different presidents of different political parties, they still share a general overview of respect for each other. Another piece of information I learned was that when the news says that the Supreme Court "upheld" or "decided" when they didn't take the case, they, the Court, just didn't do anything regarding the case brought to their attention. Also, to determine whether a case is worthy of hearing in front of the actual court four out of the nine justices have to agree on it before moving forward. When it is time to make a decision on whether or not there was a legal issue either missed or wrongly used at the lower court, five out of the nine justices have to agree.
The most important take-away point that I personally gathered about the Supreme Court is that these are the people who tell everyone; the government, states, local level courts what they can and cannot do. Every person who serves as a justice has to be objective, which to me in surprising because it is very much easier said than done to be objective as much as the justices are required to be. Something surprising that I have learned is that since the creation of the United States and the Supreme Court's establishment in 1789, there has been only just over 100 members, to me that is surprising because let's be honest. Is it the greatest idea to have all old (predominately) white people always serving in these roles as times are ever changing right before our eyes? Which goes along to the next surprising thing I learned was that the members last decades past the person who first appointed them into their position. There are also over 100 new cases every WEEK, that is just crazy to me, it's like finding out you have 10 new tests and homework assignments given to you every week, just unimaginable. Although I learned a lot of things from this video that I didn't know about before there was one thing that this video changed about how I thought about the Supreme Court. This is not a job you can just "pick up". In the video it mentioned that it takes anywhere from three to five years to start getting comfortable with it and used to the title of being a Supreme Court justice rather than what many people are used to within a couple months of their "normal" job. Again, just imagine you accept a new and fun job you think you'll be able to master in just a short couple of months and then BAM it hits you, you're kinda all over the place for the next three to five YEARS.
Overall, going into watching this video I thought I knew a relatively decent amount of information about the Supreme Court. But, it is safe to say this video not only taught me new things about the Court, but surprised me as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment