Post #2: History of SCOTUS

The U.S. Supreme Court has an interesting history and a unique set of powers that make it unlike any other high court in the world. Most notably, in 1803, the court granted itself the power of judicial review in the case Marbury v. Madison, effectively making it the most powerful Supreme Court in the world. Unlike lower appellate courts in the U.S., the Supreme Court is not required to take on cases, so they only choose about 80 to 100 of the thousands of cases they are presented each year to review. Many people have the misconception that the court can simply choose which issues it would like to tackle, but it is important to correct this notion. In reality, the court can only choose to debate the issues brought before it, which will often reflect "hot topics" of the time. Moreover, in most cases, the Supreme Court is not responsible for deciding the facts of a case. Rather, their job is to review the decisions made by lower courts and decide whether or not the ruling was correct. This responsibility of the court is called certiorari. 

One interesting fact I learned from the video we watched in class was that the Supreme Court spends very little time actually hearing a case. In fact, oral arguments only last for 30 minutes, during which time all nine justices of the court may ask questions of the lawyer representing the case to better understand the argument at hand. Then, when it comes time to discuss the case, the justices convene together alone, without even secretaries or clerks being present. Lastly, I learned that it can take four weeks or more for the court to produce an opinion due to a lengthy process of writing and revision until the majority of the justices reach a consensus on the opinion. Ultimately, while the Supreme Court is often portrayed as a growingly politicized body that attempts to "legislate from the bench", it is important to understand that Justices follow a strict set of rules which allows them only to judge what is presented before them based on their interpretations of the Constitution.