Supreme Court Video

The Supreme Court is something most people know about but don't really understand. That is the case for me, I never really spent time learning about the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court consists of nine justices with one of them acting as the chief justice. Though they don't see many cases each year, just around 100, they receive a lot more. Every year they receive thousands of petitions and appeals somewhere upward of 7,000 per year. The U.S. Supreme Court has had just over a hundred justices but it is the most powerful judicial body in the world. One might ask why there has been so little justices in America's history. The reasoning behind that is that the average term of a justice is sixteen year, however many go on the serve for double that. Many of the justices say that ones work in the Supreme Court does not begin till 3-5 years after they are appointed. They say it is because you can't really do the work until you set aside the fact that you are working in the Supreme Court. As on justice put it, being appointed to the Supreme Court is like being struck by lightning. This is simply because of how little people have served as justices for the Supreme Court. One of the jobs of the Supreme Court is to draw the boundaries of government power for the President, Congress, and States. By drawing these boundaries it means they are to tell the President, Congress, and State what they may or may not do. One example would be the Dred Scott case, in which Dred Scott claimed freedom under the act of Congress. However, the chief justice at the time, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, ruled that the congress had no power to ban slavery and that blacks would never be citizens. The Dred Scott case is forever known as a controversial case, but it is cases like that the Supreme Court accepts.