Supreme Court Reflection

The Supreme Court are Interpreters of our Constitution and the Law of our Land

Before watching this video, I understood that the U.S. Supreme Court held significant power. What I did not fully appreciate was how quietly that power operates or how much responsibility the justices carry.

Supreme Court Office, Washington D.C.

The Court receives thousands of requests for action, and every petition receives review. Petitions are distributed to individual justices, who consider their validity and whether they deserve debate before the full Court.

I was impressed that, despite the size of the country, every petition receives equal treatment. That process reflects how seriously the Court approaches its role, even though it accepts only certain cases for full consideration.

One important point stood out to me: When the Supreme Court declines to consider a case, that does not mean it supports or approves the lower court’s ruling.

The Court has been described as a quiet force, yet it is also the most powerful court in the world. Everyone is subject to its rulings and its interpretations of the Constitution.

I was also surprised to learn that barely more than 100 justices have served throughout the Court’s history. Many serve for 16 years or longer, remaining on the bench long after the president who appointed them has left office.

Former Chief Justice John Marshall

The justices help define the limits of government power by keeping Congress and the president in check. However, the Supreme Court was not always taken seriously. It gained greater authority by exerting Constitutional power over the other branches of government.

The Dred Scott Case showed how damaging a Supreme Court decision can be. The Court decided that it had no authority to end slavery, even though the Constitution could have allowed it to act. That mistake was not corrected until the Civil War.

The video also changed how I think about constitutional interpretation. The justices must apply a document written more than 200 years ago, during a time of slavery and when women could not vote, to the nation as it exists today.

“We must never forget that it is a Constitution we are expounding.” - John Marshall

For me, the biggest takeaway is that Supreme Court decisions can create lasting change, but precedent can also make future decisions more difficult.

AI DISCOLSURE: This post was a collaboration using Microsoft Copilot. I took detailed notes while watching a 20-minute video about the history of the Supreme Court. In addition to the facts I learned I emphasized my own reactions and opinions while watching. I then asked Copilot to help me improve the text by correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I then asked Copilot to shape the text into a blog-post format. After reviewing the text, I added links to related resources as well as appropriate images and captions.

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