History & Workings of the Supreme Court

Photo by Claire Anderson on Unsplash

At the top of American Government, there sits 7 individuals with a profound set of powers and responsibilities. The individuals comprise the most powerful judiciary body in the world, the Supreme Court of the United States. Beholden to the law, the American public puts their faith in the honor and objectivity of these justices. As the famously instrumental Chief Justice John Marshall put it, they are tasked with “expounding” the constitution, a 200-year-old document that remains the ultimate law of the land today. It was Chief Justice Marshall’s Court that gave themselves the ability to strike down an act of Congress as unconstitutional, forever changing the balance of American law. And though they disagree, there is a crucial, mutual respect for their common goal: preserving and protecting American liberty .

Each week, the justices are delivered a fateful mountain of more than 100 new cases from lower courts. Although they have a small group of people assisting them, the justices are proudly responsible for each individual case equally – no matter who or where the case came from. The cases selected go beyond merely those they believe to be potentially unjust; the case must pose a question of national significance. This is why such a small number of cases are accepted by the Court; a number that’s dwindling each year. Justices are adamant to point out that the acceptance or denial of a case has no bearing on their opinion of the outcome decided by lower courts; it is merely an issue of overwhelming demand. But what does “national significance” actually entail?

Photo by Matt Popovich on Unsplash

Some of these cases are expectedly high-profile, such in 2000 as when SCOTUS stepped in for the first time in U.S. history to decide the outcome of a presidential election. Other cases fall under the Court’s responsibility to ensure that federal law is enforced equally throughout the nation, hence why, when various circuit courts make contradictory decisions on federal law, those “circuit split” cases often make it to the top.

Clearly, the few cases that ultimately reach the Court present the Justices with profoundly impactful choices, making these individuals some of the most impactful in the world. The pressure they feel is inevitably immense, but the crucial job they do will go down in history, even if the public only reads the headlines.

Comments

The Growing Dangers of Media Consolidation

Every week we see a new headline highlighting a new deal, acquisition, or merger of some big-name media companies. It’s nearly impossible to pin down an accurate map of these ownerships, as new deals are so frequently changing the corporate media landscape. Sometimes, especially in the short-term, these deals can appear to work out well for the consumer. More often, however, they can prevent innovation and competition at best, while outright undermining our democracy at worst. http://frankwbaker.com/The%20big%20picture.jpg There really is no more exemplary candidate than AT&T. I would wager that most people my age are unaware that AT&T was founded by none other than Alexander Graham Bell, originally being called the Bell Telephone Company. Bell gradually accrued market dominance by either refusing to work with and/or buying out competitors , eventually rebranding to the American Telephone & Telegraph Company. Even after the formation of the Federal Communications C

Where did the Anti-War movement go?

Photo by Stijn Swinnen on Unsplash Being born in the year 2000 gives me an interesting, warped perspective on U.S. foreign occupancy and the concept of “war” in general. Without a doubt, both the World Wars and the Vietnam War seem like some of the most hellish, gut-wrenching low points in human history. It’s really hard to overstate how disturbing it was learning about the conditions of these conflicts. Operation Wandering Soul was infamously used by the U.S. as a tactic of psychological warfare; content warning, listening to the “ ghost tapes ” can be genuinely disturbing. If you’ve got the time, here’s a captivating clip of a Vietnam vet recounting his experience oversees, and specifically how it differed from the narrative Americans were being fed back home: In my mind, it’s quite understandable that such conflicts were met with passionate anti-war movements. When I look around now, however, there’s nearly no discussion of the concept. How did we get here? Where did a

The Rise of the Mixtape

Engineer Lou Ottens. Image courtesy of AD.nl When the compact cassette first debuted, it wasn’t an entirely novel innovation. As its name might suggest, Lou Ottens sought to improve upon the bulky, often unreliable 1958 tape cassette system from RCA. The inspiration for innovation came from perhaps the most human desire of all: convenience. Phillips was interested in a potential market for a portable tape recorder, and after the speaker and batteries, the decreased dimensions hardly left room for the tape itself: a mere 2 x 4.5 inch space. To match the volumetric capacity of vinyl records, designers chose to, in the most analog way possible, compress the audio data in their novel tapes. By opting for a smaller stretch of tape per second of audio – 2 inches of tape compared to the then studio-standard 15 inches – the compact cassette traded some audio quality for the boost in portability. Under pressure from Sony, Phillips allowed the Japanese tech giant license to produce h

Jack's Blob

Search This Blog