Blog Post #2: The History and Importance of the U.S. Supreme Court

Overview of The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is a facet of our society that plays a prominent role in settling public disputes as it is the highest federal courting of the United States and is the head of the judicial branch of government. They have the responsibility and power to ensure that the other two branches of government (Executive and Legislative) are not abusing their However, it is often something that is broadly known by U.S. Citizens and not taught enough in schools across America, which has led to the U.S. Supreme Court not getting the accurate recognition and value that it so preciously deserves. 

What did I learn about the Supreme Court?

Prior to watching the video and reading the article, I always thought of the Supreme Court in its present appearance and was very limited in knowledge about the actual history of it. I had no idea that there have been over 100 supreme court justices in U.S. history, averaging a term of a little over 16 years. Oftentimes, people like myself focus too thoroughly on where things like the Supreme Court are now, and do not take the initiative to learn about the history of it and how it came to be such an enormous piece of our society. In addition, I learned of more significant supreme court cases that had an immense effect on U.S. history such as the 1962 case "Engel v. Vitale in which the Supreme Court came and ruled that prayer initiated by and within public schools violets the First Amendment. Previously, whenever I was asked to name a Supreme Court case, the two cases that would instantly come to my mind were Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Education. If you were to ask me to name another, I would honestly probably laugh and say "you're really funny." This all translates to a lot of us who live in America just simply not being exposed enough to learning about the Supreme Court and other large cases that were taken there throughout the course of American history. 

Looking at the full list cases that were presented at https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/supreme-court-facts, I noticed that there were some enormous cases that I had very brief to no knowledge about that were centralized around essential issues going in our society around the time a ruling was made from these cases. Older cases like Texas v. Johnson (1989) determined that flag burning and

other potentially offensive speech is protected by the First Amendment and recent ones like Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) legalized same-sex marriage across all 50 states. This to me allowed me to be able to proficiently conceptualize the idea of the type of cases that are sent to the Supreme Court. The cases that are delivered will not be minor type cases that may only affect a small group of people. They instead will be ones in which a particular conflict/issue is affecting the entire scope of society on a consistent basis and is causing detrimental harm to numerous individuals all across the nation. 

Surprising Information I Picked up on 

I found it fascinating how Congress has altered the total number of Supreme Court seats 6 times through its existence with the number being as low as 5 and as high as 10. While there were changes, it is understandable as to why because typically when any new organization or system is created, there are going to be a few to many hiccups along the way that will require for modifications to be made. If anything, these alterations helped out the Supreme Court tremendously in the long run as it allowed them and Congress to see what worked well and how many people were actually needed for them to eloquently be the judicial branch of government. The number became 9 and has remained that way since 1869 which is very interesting to see that this number has stayed in place for almost two whole centuries. 

Furthermore, I decided to do some extensive research from external sources outside of the video and article from history.com in order to get a better depiction on what other vital information I had not known about the Supreme Court for all these years. I discovered that the Supreme Court actually did not have a fully functional home until 1935. They were in various locations prior to the beginning of the Civil War and that made me think just how harder it must have been for the Supreme Court to gain a steady reputation with them bouncing back and forth between different locations that they could call their home.

Thoughts on Supreme Court

Prior to taking an elaborate look at what the Supreme Court entails and its historic value, I always saw the Supreme Court as something that just existed in our society and was talked about every now and then. However, after doing some further research into everything about it, the Supreme Court is a tough place to work as an employee and there is a lot of critical decision making, importance, and pressure that falls on them to make the accurate decision that will better society. There are a select few of cases that are taken to the Supreme Court yearly and while a decent chunk of them do get talked about on a fairly consistent basis shortly after they've occurred, it seems as though they do not get talked about enough. Think about how many times you've heard the word Supreme Court in the media recently. If you're a judicial branch buff and stay up to date to the government, you may have a solid interpretation on what's been going on with the Supreme Court. However, if you're someone like me who's not going to be typing in Supreme Court on their Twitter search bar every 10 minutes, then you most likely do not know what is occurring with the Supreme Court at the moment either. With that being said, that all needs to change, and U.S. citizens need to start

conceptualizing and appreciating the current state and history of the U.S. Supreme Court more extensively. Oftentimes, we take things like being able to attend any school regardless of what race we are for granted, and do not think about where it all came from and who we have to thank for that right today. The Supreme Court was the group that played a prominent role in addressing that long ongoing issue of segregation. If it wasn't for their ruling, who knows how that rule would have ever gotten enforced. 

I hope to see the Supreme Court being a more focal point of discussion in history classes across the U.S., regardless what level of education it is. The Supreme Court is making major decisions for the people of America and without motivation, praise, and support from U.S. citizens, they will not feel a strong urge to fight for their rights. Hopefully someday soon we will see the Supreme Court gain more appreciation and national media attention. With the ongoing increase of social media and its heavy presence in society nowadays, there are many ways for the Supreme Court to be discussed more. The Supreme Court has made a lot of major decisions that has helped benefit citizens across America and there is no doubt that they will continue to make more of those valuable decisions, BUT there is doubt on whether or not they will start to get the recognition they deserve.