Supreme Court Reflection

What is the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. that
decided weather laws and the government's actions are constitutional.  I always  knew what the supreme court was but was so taken aback when i learned about how much power they have. The supreme court interprets the Constitution which means that is acts as the final say of what the nation's founding document means. Once the Supreme court hears a case the public no longer can influence the supreme courts decision through voting thru a ballot box. Which i was very surprised by i knew that once the case was brought to the supreme court that us as individuals get less of a say but I was surprised to find out that we as individuals get no say at all.     About the Court

How the Supreme Court Works

   The Supreme Court receives around 7,000 cases each year yet only hears around 100 to 150 cases. When I found out how many cases they get and then compared it to how many they hear I was shocked because I assumed they just pick and chose what cases they want and don't want. As i continued t learn about the supreme court i found out that is why they have the lower level courts to handle the cases that don't need the attention of the Supreme Court. It may seem that they don't handle not many cases but most cases either don't qualify which means it's important isn't as significant compared to other cases. The lower courts handle most of the cases so the Supreme court can handle more time consuming cases as well as handling the daily legal disputes. The Supreme Court then reviews the legal and constitutional issues and not the facts. They do this is because once the cases has gone thru the different courts and has reached the supreme court the lower cases has gone thru the facts. The supreme Court focuses on interpret and applying the law and not to determine what happened in the case. How the supreme Court decides what cases they are going to hear. This link helps me understnad more about the Supreme Court and why they chose the different cases and why.

The people who make up the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is made up of nine Supreme Justices, these justices meet up privately to discuss and vote on the case. When i hear "supreme Court" I was first surprised of how there are only nine justice i would assume they would have more but as i learn that there aren't just nine supreme justices there are more people behind the scenes. The Nine justices contain one chief Justice and eight associate Justices. The Justices are assigned by the President and then confirmed by the Senate. The Justices typically serve life terms unless they are removed or retire. The Justices job is to interpret the Constitution and to determined weather the case is legal or not and to ensure that the government and laws actions follow the Constitution. The one chief Justice is essential the leader of the supreme court and has extra leadership. However this doesn't mean that they have higher power over the rest of the eight justices.