The Supreme Court

I thought these videos were super enlightening! The Supreme Court has felt like a bit of a foreign body to me. I have heard about their decisions and learned about their impacts in history classes. I know that they influence precedent for laws in our country. More recently, however, especially with the Roe v. Wade decision, the power of the Supreme Court has become very interesting to me. I learned that our US Supreme Court is not only powerful, but the most powerful judicial body on earth. I also found it interesting and democratic that they get their legitimacy from the constitution, but their real power rests on public faith and their independence and impartiality. 

One thing that I learned and didn't know about the Supreme Court before was the numbers behind the scenes like just how many cases came through their office, how many are actually taken, and even the number of justices throughout time. It is crazy to me that in all of our country's history that there have only been just over 100 justices appointed who serve an average of 16 years each, but many twice as that! They often go on to serve decades after the president who actually appointed them. Another crazy number is that they receive 100 new cases each week and about 7000 total a year. I am grateful to live in a country where each and every case gets same individual consideration no matter what. That is truly remarkable for size of our country. 

The most important take-away for me was that this video really helped me to humanize the Court. While it is a very impressive and difficult job, when it comes down to it they are just trained in the law dealing with human dilemmas. The whole "inside story" of the court is that there is no inside story; it is simply people thinking. I also admire that the first thing they do when they gather is shake hands with everyone. Touch humanizes the whole process and makes it easier to not hold a grudge if they disagree. They also have the rule that everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice which shows great respect. I was also surprised to see that the justices are relatively open minded. They could have a decision in their minds and they do try to stick to it and argue it, but sometimes their minds are changed. 

A quote from the video that stuck out to me: "there's the argument you plan to give, the argument you gave, and the argument you wish you gave." That is something every person can relate to and I am grateful for my new perspective of the more human side of the Supreme Court.