The U.S. Supreme Court Reflection

The two U.S. Supreme Court videos were very enlightening. The first video taught me some general information covering the nine justices; each of which serves an average of sixteen years or longer, the history of the Supreme Court, the amount of cases the court receives weekly, and yearly, and a look into the day-to-day work of the justices. 

I liked how the video began by diving into the history of the Supreme Court addressing the case of Marbury v. Madison, 1803, where under John Marshall the court struck down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. This was very monumental as the new court rapidly earned public respect as a co-equal branch of government under his years. The video then continues onto the case of Dred Scott claiming his freedom under an act of Congress twenty years later which weakened the Court's authority.

Through the conversation with Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Thomas, and Breyer talking with Dick Howard, the Justices noted some interesting points. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor shared that the process for granting or denying certiorari requires every petition to get the same individual consideration. This shows that the process is fair and unbiased towards any particular group of people. I also appreciated how the associate Justice mentioned his system of everyone speaking once before anyone speaks twice. I feel like that is an excellent system because it can be hard to get your opinion out there in a conversation when the same few people keep talking. I think this system allows for equal conversations accounting for everyone's opinions and ideas. Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned that he likes to have an outlined answer before coming into the conference to know how he is going to decide the case but sometimes that answer changes throughout the conference. He acknowledges that his opinion relatively stays the same yet he is open to changing his opinion based on the discussion. Each of these points makes me feel confident in the individuals making these decisions as they are attempting to make fair and ethical decisions.

I was particularly surprised by the number of cases received compared to the number considered by the court. The Supreme Court receives over a hundred new cases every week and about 7,000 a year, most of these arriving as petitions for certiorari. Of the approximate 7,000, the court only accepts about a hundred of them for full consideration each year. Newly arrived petitions and written arguments in cases that have already been accepted are sent to the justices one time a week. This surprised me because I thought a hundred was very few compared to the thousands of cases received yearly. However, once watching the second video I slowly realized why. 

Part two dove into the inner workings of the cases and how they go through the Court. Within a few days after hearing arguments, the nine Justices sit together in a conference room to vote to decide a case. Once they decide, a Justice on the majority side of the decision is assigned to write an opinion explaining the legal reasons for the decision. This is important because the Court's reasoning in a written opinion binds all other courts as they decide future cases. Any Justice also has the option to write a separate opinion from the majority, either dissenting from the decision or concurring with the result but disagreeing with the reasoning which I did not know prior to this video. It takes about four weeks for the opinion drafts to be completed and then it is sent to all nine Justices. A Justice may redraft in an effort to persuade the other Justices to join the majority opinion. Revisions may go on for months as the author tries to accommodate differing views. 

I found it interesting how the length of the written opinion varies. When the decisions are unanimous it will typically be a few pages long but if the divided court writes separate opinions it can exceed eighty pages. This makes complete sense though it's crazy to think that if a separate opinion is written it can more than double in length.

After learning about the process it makes sense why they only choose to accept about a hundred for full consideration. Doing any more would be very difficult to manage with the amount of time it takes to just come to a decision on one case. This video made me realize just how long it takes to grant or deny certiorari and made me respect the work of the Supreme Court Justices even more than I had before. I found it interesting how a Justice explained how it takes at least three to five years to start feeling less overwhelmed and getting comfortable in the position. It makes sense that it would take a decent amount of time to get comfortable in such an important role but also surprising that out of the average sixteen years as a Justice, it takes about a fourth of the time to actually start feeling confident. 

Current Justices of The Supreme Court