Blog Post #2-History and Workings of U.S. Supreme Court
Overview of the United States Supreme Court
The United States Supreme Court is the most prestigious federal court in the nation and the highest ranking court of the judicial branch. The Supreme Court, which was formed by the Constitution, maintains absolute authority of all the laws in the country; Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court is tasked with analyzing which laws are deemed constitutional, as well as monitoring the works of the legislative and executive branches of government.
Early Days of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court originated from Article Three of the Constitution, which in addition allowed Congress the jurisdiction of establishing lower federal courts. When the Judiciary Act of 1789 was signed into law, it was decided by the legislative branch that the Supreme Court would be composed of a total of six justices. Once appointed, Supreme Court justices were permitted to remain on the court for a lifetime.
The original supreme court meeting was held on February 2, 1790 in New York City. Ironically however, the Supreme Court did not rule on its first case until a year and a half later. Within the first century succeeding the formation of the United States Supreme Court, it was mandated that all the justices attend a biannual circuit court in every judicial court, which was later interdicted by Congress in 1891.
Supreme Court Justices
In order to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, each justice must first be nominated by the President and then approved by the U.S. Senate. The chief justice, who is the top judicial officer in the United States, plays a significant role as the chairperson of the Supreme Court and is also responsible for organizing the justices' meetings.
If the chief justice is ever in agreement with the majority opinion, then he or she is granted the right to determine which justice will be responsible for writing the opinion of the court. One of the most common trials where the chief justice presides are impeachment trials against the President.
Prior to 1869-when Congress decided that only nine justices were allowed to serve on the Supreme Court-the number of Supreme Court seats fluctuated frequently between five and ten. The current U.S. Supreme Court justices include: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.; Associate Justice Clarence Thomas; Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer; Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.; Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor; Elena Kagan; Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch; Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
One of my favorite Supreme Court cases is the Loving V. Virginia case of 1967, which abolished state laws forbidding interracial marriage in the United States. I watched the movie and wrote a report about this case during my junior year of high school, and I was captivated at how it took four years for the Supreme Court to finally rule that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were a violation of the 14th Amendment.
I can also remember being as young as eight and asking my dad if it was against the law to marry somebody of a different race; To which, he replied no because if that were the case, then my oldest brother would not be married to my sister-in-law. I had only asked this out of curiosity because at the time, I had no idea that interracial marriage was once in fact illegal.
In my opinion, the Loving V. Virginia case conveys that love does not have a color, and it is all of our decisions as to who we want to spend the rest of our lives with.
I am also hoping for the United States Supreme Court to become more diverse in upcoming years. Ideally, I would like to see more women, particularly women of color appointed to the Supreme Court, as most of the justice seats have been dominated by men for many years. Diversity on the Supreme Court is essential because we need justices who can relate to all people and will look out for the best interest of all American citizens. As of now, I am predicting and hoping that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the first African-American woman appointed to the Supreme Court.
The graphs below identify which Supreme Court Justices are more liberal or conservative leaning.
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