Blog Post #2: The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is known as the highest federal court in the United States. It is the head of the judicial branch of government. Since it was established by the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court has power over all laws within the United States. Additionally, it is responsible for evaluating the constitutionality of those laws. The court is made up of nine justices, with the power to check the actions of the other two branches of government which are the executive branch of the president and the legislative branch of Congress.

As I was reading the overview about the Supreme Court created by the History Channel, I learned that the court justices are appointed for life, even though the Constitution does not specifically state it. They can only be removed by impeachment. There has only been one Supreme Court Justice that has ever been impeached, Samuel Chase in 1805. The Judiciary Act of 1789 was signed into law by President George Washington, specifying that the court would be made up of six justices who would serve on the court until they died or retired. This fact was intriguing to me because that is a huge responsibility and commitment to be a part of to be appointed as a Supreme Court Justice for life. 

The most important takeaway point about the Supreme Court is that the Chief Justice is the highest judicial officer in the nation. The chief justice is responsible for being in a position of authority over the Supreme Court as well as setting the agenda for the justices' weekly meetings. The most surprising thing I learned is that the Supreme Court has held a wealth of important cases for the last 200 years. For example, a very heavily controversial case Roe v. Wade (1973), ruled that women have a right to an abortion during the first two trimesters. This case was overturned in June 2022.  Another one is Texas v. Johnson (1989), which found that flag burning and other potentially offensive speech is protected by the First Amendment. 

The video changed the way I thought about the Supreme Court because it explained the significance and power the Supreme Court has, which is not something I thought of or realized prior to reading this article. I knew of the Supreme Court and that it decides many of the laws going into action. However, reading the article helped me enhance my knowledge about the Supreme Court and our system of government.