What I learned about the Supreme Court

 

The Late Honorable RBG

What I learned from the Supreme Court documentary

I think the biggest thing I learned is how closely the judges work together. For example, I originally thought that a committee that was not made up of the judges and made up of a jury would be the one to choose which court cases were reviewed by the Supreme Court ( I thought this would work the best because it would hopefully eliminate as much bias as possible.) Turns out that the judges do not only decide the outcome of the cases they take but they decide which cases they take as a group which I thought would be harder to do especially because many of these judges are of different political parties.

I really liked hearing about how they shake hands before every meeting they have, they said that they do this to avoid grudges or any lasting bitterness over a difference of opinion. I think that's really noble and makes them work better as a team and I hope they still continue to do that today even if many of the judges in the documentary are no longer there. 

I also learned that the Supreme Court had a huge role in keeping slavery around for a lot longer than it needed to be. I don't know why I assumed this but I figured that because Congress was so divided the Supreme Court was also divided when it came to slavery. Turns out they weren't as divided and ruled slaves as not citizens and ruled their citizenship as unconstitutional. I also didn't realize that once slavery was abolished many people held a grudge against the Supreme Court about their decision on slavery.

 I also learned that the Constitution does not specify the number of judges on the Supreme Court and that it's been fluctuating since its very founding. Before 1869 when they started having nine judges they used to have an even number of judges because they didn't think that split decisions were going to be as much of an issue as they've become. Over the years people have tried to change the number, (FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court with 15 judges) but it's always stayed at 9. 

References

Roos, D. (2020, September 23). Why do 9 justices serve on the supreme Court? HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/supreme-court-justices-number-constitution

Stephens, D. [@davisstephens7898]. (2013a, September 11). Comm3390 Supreme Court, Pt. 1. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWRoXYRsaeo

Stephens, D. [@davisstephens7898]. (2013b, September 13). Comm3390 Supreme Court, Pt. 2. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca8qSuWxcG8