U.S. Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court has existed since 1789. This powerful part of the system of checks and balances plays a major part in deeming things as constitutional or not. While watching the videos and reading the article, it has taught me a lot of things about the Supreme Court that I did not know. 

    One of the few things that I learned is that the Supreme Court is the U.S. highest federal court and head of the judicial branch of the government. My original thought on this branch is that the Supreme Court was the only part of that branch and no one else. 

    Another thing that I learned is that the court's first draft of the opinion is finished in four weeks and sent to all nine-justice. Then a justice may re-draft it twelve or more times in an effort to persuade others. The revision and adjustments may go on for months trying to accommodate different views. The way I thought it went was that they spent time talking about it and coming to a decision at that moment. This also ties in with the next thing that all case decisions are announced in late June. 

    The third thing that I learned is that the number of justices changed over six times until 1869. The number changed between five and ten for a six-year span. I always thought that the number stayed the same since the beginning. 

    The most surprising thing that I have learned is that everyone must speak one time before anyone else can speak again. Before this rule was put in people could not get a word out due to people talking over each other. At this point, I can see why it was implemented because imagine trying to discuss something and people keep talking over each other. You would get nowhere and just waste a lot of people's time.

    My thoughts about the Supreme Court were that they were a bunch of old people who only sat there and do nothing most of the time. Now that I have a better understanding of what they do, I feel like I can respect what they do as a whole and how tiring their line of work is.