Blog #3: The Supreme Court

One thing I learned from the video was that there have only been slightly over 100 Supreme Court Justices in history. This was very surprising to me because with the court having been around so long, I would’ve believed there were a lot more justices. An additional thing I learned was that the Supreme Court gets over 100 new cases per week. It makes sense that they can only take a small amount of those cases. However, it was still very surprising that so many cases are sent to them every week. I also learned they only accept about 100 cases per year. This shows that it is very competitive for a case that is sent to the Supreme Court to actually be heard. 

The most important takeaway is that the role of the Supreme Court is that it shapes what laws go into effect to both Congress and The President. They are an independent branch of government which has a huge responsibility in interpreting the United States Constitution, as was mentioned. Another important takeaway is that they can strike down laws by Congress. This is important because it helps to prevent an unconstitutional law from taking effect. 

This video changed the way I think about the Supreme Court by showing me the importance of what they do in terms of reviewing laws that may be unconstitutional. It is an extremely important role that they play within the government. The ability of the Supreme Court to stop a potentially unconstitutional law is important.

The most surprising thing I learned was how the court ruled in the case of Dred Scott. This was very surprising because it is hard to believe that the Supreme Court could issue that ruling. Considering how important public opinion is for the Supreme Court, such a controversial decision is very surprising to me that they would make that decision.