"US Supreme Court" Blog Post #2

The Supreme Court, the highest court of the land. To think of what these 9 justices are tasked to do is quite remarkable. As the head of the Judicial branch, their job is to interpret our laws and ensure that they preserve the Rule of Law. In its more than 200 year history, SCOTUS has held a wealth of important cases, which have had lasting impacts on the nation, for better or worse. 

This made me think of the Dred Scott case that we discussed in class, where Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that Congress had no power to ban slavery and that African Americans could never be “citizens”. This decision went on to weaken the court's authority for years because as Supreme Court Justices their power rests on public faith. This made me realize just how much responsibility the 9 justices hold. These are people who make a lifelong commitment to serve others through their work. 

It was interesting to discover from the History article that there were initially 6 justices appointed by George Washington. It was not until 1869 where Congress set the number of seats to nine, where it has remained until today.  

What I took away from Part 1 and Part 2 of the videos was that the justices are not afraid to counter each others arguments. I think that is very important considering that because it is only 9 justices, it could just be the one outlier that causes the other justices to take an alternative perspective on a proposal. 

It has always been interesting for me to see how these 9 justices can interpret a doctrine that is over 200 years old. This is what led to the disagreement between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonio Scalia. Their disagreement came about when discussing the Constitution and particularly “We the People” when that was said it was not looking at the United States but rather a marginalized group that excluded women and their ability to vote, as well as Native Americans who were not treated as equal citizens.