Post 2: The Supreme Court

 The Supreme Court

A Summary of Present Day & Historical Events 

The Supreme Court holds the highest amount of power within the United States government. It was established in 1789 with Article III of the U.S Constitution which gave power to the Supreme Court and power to inferior courts. This was a monumental decision in American history since it completely altered the way power is/was distributed in the American government. In Article III, it states that federal judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour” which has since been interpreted as granting the Justices a lifetime of service on the Supreme Court, unless the Justices themselves wish to step down and retire.This interpretation of the Constitution is a controversial one, since people have disagreed with granting a lifetime of power on the supreme court, especially when certain justice’s moral ethics come into question. 

The current Justices on the Supreme Court are John G. Roberts, Jr., Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh and there is a picture of them attached below. One thing I didn’t realize until reading this article, is that there is one Chief Justice who is the highest judicial officer in the nation, and that role is currently being served by Justice John G. Roberts. He is responsible for presiding over the Court and arranging the agenda for their weekly meetings. There is no official requirements to be appointed as Chief Justice and they are voted in the same way as Associate Justices; appointed by the president and confirmed by the state

The Supreme Court has seen and voted on numerous important and interesting cases, some more famous than others. One case that this article mentions that is famous was Plessy v Ferguson in 1896 which set the standard of “separate but equal” when it came to segregation and that standard would be upheld for decades to come. Or Roe v Wade (1973), which protected a woman’s right to have an abortion and protected her privacy. I previously knew about those cases, and other famous cases, but in this article it mention many other, more obscure cases, like Mapp v. Ohio (1961) or Texas v. Johnson (1989). In Mapp v. Ohio (1961) ruling, it became unconditional to use evidence against someone that was obtained during an unlawful or illegal search.  With Texas v. Johnson (1989), it enforced an individual’s first amendment rights of free speech, even if it seems obscene, like burning an American flag. These two cases aren’t famous in name but instead, in practice. I knew that I had both of those rights that protected me from unlawful searches and freedom to express myself but I didn’t know the actual names of cases that granted me those rights. Nor did I know the time in history where Americans were specifically granted those rights. The Supreme Court gives a microphone to Americans so that we can go against the government and protects us from tyranny.