The Supreme Court

 I never knew much about the Supreme Court, but after viewing a video about it, it helped shed some light on their history and what their tasks are while in the Court. First off, I was very surprised to learn there has only been just over a hundred total members of the Supreme Court, or better known as the Supreme Court Justices, while the court has existed for over two whole centuries. The Supreme Court Justices average a serving time of around 16 years, but many of them work until they die or physically and mentally unable to work anymore. Justice Stephen Breyer spoke on his experience when first joining the Supreme Court, reflecting on the overwhelming responsibilities that is held on a justice's shoulders, and how many years it takes to get used to it. "When I got here, some of my colleagues said to me, you've got to give it three years, and after three years it will not seem so overwhelming and so strange. One of them said, pay no attention to the three-year rule it takes five. I think probably it's fair to say that you really start doing your work here properly when you forget that you're here, and that takes a few years."

Another thing I learned about the Supreme Court was that they did not always have power over the citizens of the United States. That was up until year of 1801, when our government moved to Washington and appointed John Marshall the Chief justice of the Supreme Court. While he was Chief Justice, he gave a fine example of using the constitution to make decisions for the rest of the members of the court to follow. He led the Court to gain the public respect it has to this day, being viewed as a key representative of the government. Twenty years later, one infamous case greatly weakened the authority of the Supreme Court and would alter the path of the United States forever. It was the Dred Scott case, where Mr. Scott claimed freedom from slavery under the act of Congress, but the Chief Justice at the time refused this, explaining the court ruled that congress had no authoritative power to ban slavery. This and many other outbreaks would eventually lead to the Civil War, a war over slavery.

Lastly, another aspect of the Supreme Court that amazed me was the number of cases they deal with, about hundred new cases per week and over 7,000 per year. Each justice has a group of secretaries and law clerks to assist them with the numerous amounts of cases, but the individual member of the Supreme Court must make the decision for every case that is dealt with. Justice Stephen Breyer explains the job of the Supreme Court in a very simple way, "You're actually living the fact that people who wrote this document called the Constitution, somehow managed to produce words that actually guide us in solving problems 200 years later." I agree with his statement as well, it is very interesting that a document that was written that long ago still helps us solve problems to this day. 

 https://youtu.be/cWRoXYRsaeo