Blog Post #2

 The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court plays a super important role in decision making among Congress and the government.  I was a little surprised when I heard that there were only just over 100 Supreme Court justices and that many members served over 36 years, decades after the president who appointed them had left office.  I was not aware that some people called the 14th Amendment the Second Bill of Rights and I can see the parallels drawn between the two.  Another thing I found out was that the Supreme Court receives over 100 new cases each week, which to me sounds like a bunch.  So they have to diligent in how they work because of the high demand. 

I think something that the video mentioned that is humorous but also very important was that the the people of the Supreme Court are real people, not disembodied souls.  I think the most important takeaway from the video is where one of the members said "A court has no secrets because it's all out there in the opinion, and the inside story of a court is that there is no inside story.  It's people simply thinking."  This was his response to the question that was asked about the court keeping it's distance between itself and the larger public.  One of the members said that from their experience standing in the room and arguing a case, that it's really good to have a strong opening sentence and a great closing one as well if there's time.  Towards the end of the video, it was said that "If the court ever stopped defending the Constitution or the people ever stopped listening, then one of the treasures that keep this the freest nation in the world would cease to exist."