The United States Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court in the United States hasn’t had the best reputation the past year for overturning Roe v. Wade, yet I think people still tend to forget how important they are for our nation. Those 9 justices spend their time reading and examining nearly 7,000 cases a year. The Supreme Court has given us many major decisions throughout the years such as Brown v. Board of Education and Plessy v. Ferguson. Without the Supreme Court, our government and our people just might go power crazy, and we need our justices to keep that from happening. 

    Being a Criminal Justice major, my first CRJ class dove into the Supreme Court a little. I know the basics but there is still a ton to learn about them and what they do. While reading through the article, SCOTUS History, I learned a lot of new things I did not know previously. I learned that their first term ever in 1790 was spent focusing on certain procedures before taking any cases. Their first case was West v. Barnes, which involved a farmer who owed money to a family, and it created a financial dispute. The last thing I learned was that the chief justice presides over impeachment trials against the President of the United States. This just happened recently with President Donald Trump; however, he was acquitted. There’s always more to learn about the Supreme Court and the justice’s roles in government. 

    There are not many things that surprise me about the Supreme Court, yet there were a few things in the SCOTUS History article that did. While I knew about the most important cases in history, I was surprised to learn that Earl Warren, the chief justice in the 1950s and 1960s decided on a bunch of these cases. He decided on Brown v. Board of Education, made the Miranda rights set in stone, and even got rid of interracial marriage constraints in Loving v. Virginia. Additionally, I was shocked to learn in the video, Comm3390 Supreme Court, Pt.1, that the Supreme Court justices do all their own work before convening to relay opinions off of each other. I was also surprised to learn in the video, Comm3390 Supreme Court, Pt.2, that the attorneys, when presenting a case to the justices, only have 30 minutes to tell their side. This is exceptionally hard when justices have their own opinions and can be asking completely different questions. They may even be asking questions to throw off another justice's opinions and persuade them to get on their side. Government can be full of surprises and it’s hard to notice them until you dig a little deeper.

    The video, part 1 and part 2, changed the way I see the justices on the Supreme Court. I’m not sure why, but I always envisioned them as very robot-like. I saw them as emotionless and very work driven to the point it didn’t seem like they were real people. However, that couldn’t have been more wrong. They are very dedicated people, to say the least, yet they do show emotion and act like normal humans. Ruth Bader Ginsburg even stated that her first time speaking made her extremely nervous like I am when having to present something to the class. During their interview, they would laugh and smile and it showed me that they are not cruel and lifeless people as I once thought. These justices on the Supreme Court may be a bit controversial in their decisions, but they are human so they should be treated the same as others. 

    Overall, the U.S. Supreme Court is complicated and tricky to understand. However, we must realize how much these justices have done for us. They spend all their time working on cases and deciding what is best for this nation's people. It is important we have people like them to keep our country afloat and standing. Without our Supreme Court, we would fall apart as a nation, and that is the last thing we need or want.