Blog Post #2

 Supreme Court 

By: Trinity Church 

         

           

      The Supreme Court was established in 1989 by Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court is the highest federal court in the country and the head of the judicial branch of government. To my surprise even though the court had its first meeting on February 1, 1970, they didn't actually hear any cases in its first term. For more than 100 years after the foundation of the Supreme Court, the justices were required to hold circuit court twice a year in each judicial circuit. Though the first court comprised of six justices, Congress altered the number of Supreme Court seats. Before 1869 Congress changed the number of justices to achieve its own partisan political goals, resulting in as few as five Supreme Court justices required by law under John Adams and to as many as 10 under Abraham Lincoln. In 1869, Congress set the number of seats to nine, where it has remained until today. As of January 2021, 115 Justices have served on the Supreme Court. The first Supreme Court was made up of Chief Justice John Jay and Associate Justices John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison, and James Wilson.

      Some of the most surprising information I learned in this article is that the chief justice is the highest judicial officer in the nation and is responsible for presiding over the Supreme Court and setting the agenda for the justices' weekly meetings. Also that the chief justice can preside over trials of impeachment against the President of the United States in the U.S Senate. Another thing that stood out to me was that the Supreme Court can oversee the actions of the Executive and Legislative branches of government. I found it interesting that the chief justice only exists because its mentioned in the Constitution under Senate rules for impeachment proceedings. One thing that I learned from the article is that William Howard Tart is the only person to serve as both President and chief justice. As the United States President from 1909 to 1913 and chief justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1921 to 1930, William Howard Tart was the only man in history to hold the highest post in both the Executive and Judicial branches of the United States government.

    

  

    The video really opened my eyes to how for the people the Supreme Court really is. I feel like a lot of people think anyone in the government is against them including myself but the video make me realize that the Supreme Court just want whats best for everyone. The people that are on the Supreme Court take so much time out of their day to go back and forth about the cases they are given. They want to make sure that they aren't just making any decisions but instead taking their time and making sure that when they're doing their job they're giving their all. My take away from the video is that it makes me view the Supreme Court in a more positive light because of how hard and seriously they take their job.