Supreme Court Article and Video

What is the Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court of the United States is the nation's highest federal court and the head of the government's judicial branch.

It is the most powerful judicial organization in the entire world.

The Supreme Court of the United States was formed by the US Constitution, and it has the power to make decisions about US legislation.

They make use of their power to monitor the legislative and executive branches of the government and determine whether laws are constitutional.

The Supreme Court is the final judge of all legal disputes out of the Constitution or the laws of the United States.

The promise of equal justice under the law for all Americans is upheld by the Supreme Court, which serves as the ultimate authority of legal interpretation.

By doing this, it also protects and interprets the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

To be completely honest, I knew very little about the Supreme Court before reading the article and doing any research.

I was aware of a few pieces of information here and there, but I was never able to really appreciate what the Supreme Court was doing to help the public.

What did I learn?

One thing I discovered was that the United States Supreme Court originally consisted of six Justices who remained in the courtroom until their deaths or retirements. 

I also learned they sit in a specific order: the Chief Justice sits in the center chair having the Associate Justice sit on the right and the Second senior on the left then after that they alternate seats based on seniority.

They are also required to wear a specific attire while they are in the courtrooms which is a black robe.

Before I read this I would have never known this or thought about this.

What was Surprising?

One thing that I found surprising was that before settling at the current level of nine Justices in 1869, the number of Justices on the Supreme Court altered six times. 

There have only been 17 Chief Justices and 104 Associate Justices since the Court's founding in 1790, with each Justice holding office for an average of 16 years. 

The Court occasionally welcomed new Justices and different points of views throughout its history despite its significant institutional continuity; on average, a new Justice joins the Court roughly every two years. 

The six founding Justices were chosen by President Washington, who also chose four additional Justices before the end of his second term. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt came close to breaking this record during his lengthy term by selecting eight justices and advancing Justice Harlan Fiske Stone to be the Chief of Justice.

This surprised me due to the fact I would have never thought it would have taken six times to decide the number of Justices on the Supreme Court