The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Brief History

The United States Supreme Court has been around since the beginning of our country. It was established on March 4, 1789 in accordance with Article III of the United States Constitution. It established that the Court would have judicial power over all cases that come to it, but that's about it. It doesn't say how many people are to be on this court or the process by which they would receive a case. It just simply states that the Supreme Court would exist and have judicial power over cases. So at this time period in the country, they had just declared their independence from Great Britain and fought and defeated them in a war over it. Later, in 1803, the court case of Marbury v. Madison set the precedent of "judicial review." A precedent is a case decision that can be looked back upon to help decide more recent cases. Judicial review means that the Supreme Court has the power to "review all actions by all departments of government and deem them constitutional or not." This basically means that the Court has the power to decide whether or not the rest of the federal government is complying with the Constitution. This is part of the checks and balances system in place to make sure that no one branch of government is more powerful than the other two.

I did find the video very interesting. I liked getting to hear the justices opinions on what the day-to-day life of a Supreme Court justice is like and how the Court has evolved over time. They mentioned that they all shake hands with all the other justices before they sit down to discuss a case, because if you make that physical connection before you argue, you are less likely to "hold a grudge," as one justice put it, with someone else who disagrees with you. I also found it humorous to hear that there are three kinds of arguments in the Court: the one you prepare to make, the one you actually make, and the one you with you would have made. They used a lot of terms in the video I am not familiar with, so it was kind of challenging for me to understand what they were talking about, but I found the whole thing to be very interesting and to see how the Court has grown and evolved over time.

And if anyone wants the links to the videos, here they are: Part 1 and Part 2.