Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the highest federal court in the United States' judicial system. The Supreme Court has nine Justices who, when appointed, serve for the rest of their life. When a Justice dies, the President chooses a new Justice to take their place. This is all common knowledge about the Supreme Court. Having taken several social studies and American history courses throughout grade school and high school, I thought I had a fairly decent understanding of how the Supreme Court actually worked.

One thing that I did not know was when and how the Supreme Court was really started. John Marshall was made the first Cheif Justice in 1801. He was the first person to have the power to determine an act of congress unconstitutional. Another interesting tidbit that I did not know was that the justices do not get to pick which cases they hear. They also must try and make sure that everyone talks at least once before allowing anyone to speak a second time. 

I feel the most important thing I recently learned was that the court bases its decisions entirely on the power of the constitution. This is because a case that gets to the Supreme Court has already passed through the various levels of the judiciary system and therefore an issue of national concern. 

Among the things that took me by surprise was that it can take 4 weeks to write just the first draft of the report citing the Justices' legal reasoning behind the decision they came to. Despite its importance, it just seems like a very large waste of time that could be allocated elsewhere. 

Although it is a key piece in a complex system of checks and balances, the Supreme Court is still driven by people. Just because the Justices are hand-picked by the president and confirmed by Congress, they are still just normal people who have personal feelings and opinions as well.