Support for the Court (Blog Post #3)

Support for the Court (Blog Post #3)

This week we talked about the Founding Era and the idea of America. The whole concept for the new United States was based off of one core thing: democracy. Democracy was important to the founding fathers because many pioneers left their previous countries to create a country based on freedom. People were tired of the government having too much control over their daily lives, so they decided to leave and find a better life in America. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) plays a big role into the realtionship between an individual and the federal government. SCOTUS was born from Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution to be the ultimate jurisdiction over all laws within the United States to ensure that they are constitutional and to prevent the federal government from having too much power.

I learned a lot about SCOTUS during high school in my freshman year civics class. What they failed to teach me about was the justices. I didn't know that there were originally only 6 justices until 1869, when they changed it to 9. I found it surprising that over 100 justices have served and only one, Samuel Chase, has been removed.

The most important takeaway I got from learning about SCOTUS was that their role is to evaluate the constitutionality of the laws. I also learned about how SCOTUS has the power to change the dynamics of the whole country. They have made decisions that have changed history as we know it. One of the most popular cases that actually has to do with what we talked about this week was Marbury v. Madison. This website https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/marbury-v-madison talks about how Marbury v. Madison established judicial review, which gives power to the court to review all actions of all branches of government.

The most surprising fact I learned was that there are no qualifications to be on the Supreme Court. However, they still have to be recommended by the President and approved by the Senate. All in all, I gained a better appreciation for the Supreme Court this week. I am impressed by the dedication the justices have for keeping our country a fair and constitutional one.