U.S. Supreme Court Blog

 

• I learned that a lot of the time that the Supreme Court or the government in general does a lot of things that they are not supposed to be doing. Such as, being 35 trillion dollars in debt because of supplying weapons and sending people away to wars that we aren't supposed to be a part of. Also, just a traditional fact is that a typical Supreme Court Judge has a 16 year service, which I did not know there was a statistic to that. 

  • What is the most important take-away point about the Supreme Court?

  - An important takeaway is that the Supreme Court is quiet about what they do. They do not suddenly make an announcement, they host their meetings amongst themselves and then eventually word gets out if it is important enough for the public to know about. This also can go about why there are artists who paint out the court case, for the privacy of the witnesses, jury and everyone else in that room. If a bunch of journalists were allowed in a room with cameras and questions, it could cause chaos inside and outside of the court. 

  • What was the most surprising thing you learned?

  - What was most surprising to me was that at one point the First Amendment was questioned and that having an opinion that could potentially jeopardize the government was seen extremely differently than it is now. Another article of information I found surprising was that the case called Marbury Versus Madison really made what the Supreme Court is today. That the government has the right to find laws that are considered unconstitutional and therefore remove them to make more sense of the government around them. Another thing that I find interesting is that there was a court case between a slave, Dredd Scott, who claimed his freedom within Congress, but then a judge named Roger Brooke Tanley but congress said that the court had no right to ban slavery. This was later resolved by the Civil War. 

  
  

My Notes From The Lecture

• How did the video change the way you thought of the Supreme Court?

- This video changed my way I think about the Supreme Court by having a sense of understanding as to what they do. Prior, I was confused as to what they do, don't do and other history I found vital. For example, the vitality of judicial review and a good definition of this is: the power of court to review all actions by all departments of government and determine them unconstitutional or not. Overall, I feel a lot more educated on the Supreme Court now than I did a few days ago.