Blog Post #3: The Supreme Court

 

After watching the assigned video about the supreme court, I now understand how the importance of the Supreme Court cannot be overstated. I already knew that the Supreme Court is the highest judicial in the country, but I never necessarily understood the history of the Supreme Court, and it's role in interpreting the constitution and ensuring the protection of individual rights and liberty. 

Another thing I learned was how the Supreme Court serves as a check on power of the other branches of government. The court has the power to declare laws and actions of the executive and legislative branches unconstitutional, which helps to maintain the balance of power among the different branches of government. I always knew about Checks and Balances, but the video helped me better understand why this was important to have in order to have a successful government.

The most important take away I learned from the Supreme Court is the responsibility it has to interpret the constitution. The constitution outlines the basic principles and structure of government. However, the Constitution is a document that has been interpreted in many different ways. Therefore, the Supreme Court, 9 justices, play a critical role in this process by providing legal interpretations of extreme cases by the Constitution which is something that a lower court system cannot decide on by itself. 

The most surprising thing I learned from this video was that the Supreme Court receives over 7,000 cases per yearly term. However, they will only actually hear about 100 of those cases. That is shocking to me and something that makes it hard for me to wrap my head around because the evaluation process of choosing which case is good enough, even though I am sure they are all awful, must be very challenging.

 The video changed what I thought about the Supreme Court for sure about the history and importance of the document.