The Supreme Court

From watching this video, I learned that the Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial body in the world, as they have the authority over congress, the states, and even the president. Because there are so few members, the likelihood of someone becoming a Supreme Court Justice is very low. Through this video, I learned that the US public actually took a long time to accept the Supreme Court. Before 1801, the court had barely any political influence. But after John Marshall was named Chief Justice, the court was given much more power and influence, making it a co-equal branch of government. As a result, the people finally began to respect the Supreme Court and what they represent in our country. I find in fascinating that a court that originally was seek as weak with little power was able to turn into something so important in modern day America. 

What I found most surprising is that out of the hundreds of thousands of cases sent to the Supreme Court every year, they don't actually review very many. In fact, they only review around one hundred cases a year, which was definitely a surprise to me considering how prominent the Supreme Court is in our government. They receive each case a week prior, and lawyers will had thirty minutes to make their argument in front of the justices before they vote and make a ruling. There are also many times where not all nine justices will be present at the ruling, with a lot of arguments only being heard by four or five of them. 

A key take away I got from this video is that over the two hundred years of the Supreme Court's history, there have only been a hundred justices. This is very interesting to me because you don't truly think about how few justices there have been until you actually look back at the court's history. It also shows just how difficult it is to become a justice, since most people in politics will likely never be in that position. All in all this key point has changed the way I view the Supreme Court. I didn't know much about the court before watching, apart from the basics. But the way the video explained how the court is run and what these exclusive members do on a daily basis shows me first hand how important the Supreme Court is to our country.