Supreme Court Reflection

The Supreme Court: Power and Public Trust

Before watching the two videos, I knew that the Supreme Court is the highest court in the country. However, I had not known how much the court's structure and powers changed throughout the history. The first fact that was notable to me was that the Constitution never set the number of nine justices.

The Congress had changed the Court's size many times until 1869 when nine justices were fixed. I had not known about the "rule of four" where four justices must agree to take a case, although usually five justices decide it.

Thousands of cases come to the court and only a few of them get accepted by the Supreme Court, which makes each case chosen very important.

The most important idea that I learned from the video was that the Supreme Court is not only resolving disputes, but its decisions interpret the Constitution and affect the lives of Americans for years. The case of Marbury v. Madison in 1803 introduced judicial review, which allows the Court to evaluate if the law and governmental actions comply with the Constitution.

The fact that such a tremendous power is not specified in the Constitution is astonishing. Even more astonishing is the limitation of the Court's power: it does not have any police or army and thus cannot force the laws into action. It can do so only because of the respect and trust of the citizens and government officials.

Thus, I considered the Supreme Court an almost omnipotent institution before watching the videos. Now, I understand that the Supreme Court depends much on trust, traditions and reputation.

In addition, the videos helped me understand how the Supreme Court's procedure works: the justices read briefs, discuss the cases orally, meet privately, vote and write their majority, concurring and dissenting opinions. While the procedure itself is silent, the consequences are not.

With one decision, the Supreme Court may change the rights, laws and government regulations of the whole country. Thus, the videos helped me see that the Supreme Court is a powerful and vulnerable institution at once.