Blog Post #2: Insight on our Nations Highest Court

"It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial department to say what the law is." - Marbury v. Madison (1808)

    This statement stands as a standard and staple for the United States Judicial System. The United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the nation, has final jurisdiction over all federal cases . The soul purpose of the Supreme Court is to ensure that the constitution continues to be respected and interpreted correctly.

     The beginning of real Judicial power began in 1801, when the Supreme Court deemed an act of Congress unconstitutional, under Chief Justice John Marshall. Marshall truly paved the way for the Judicial Branch as we know it today, asserting that "We must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding." In simple terms, Marshall established that the duty of the Judicial Branch is to interpret the constitution to the best of their abilities and deem what is lawful or unlawful.

    In this video, I learned that the Supreme Court has a lot more work than the American public is made aware of.  Having the responsibility to review thousands of cases a year, hundreds a week, and deem whether it follows a constitution written over 200 years ago is an incredible task. As said by the justices in the video, having to interpret a document written over 200 yeas ago is both a blessing and a curse. On a good note, having 200 years of American history to go off of, allows current Justices to have record of times when the constitution stood strong, or needed to be adjusted, such as the addition of the bill of rights, the 14th amendment and the 19th amendment. 

    A significant fact I took from this video was the case of Dred Scott. I was completely unaware that in as early as about 1825 there were movements to abolish slavery. I definitely didn't know that it was the Judicial system that was responsible for the continuation of such inhumane circumstances. One would think that Chief Justice Rodger Brook Tony, as the head of our nations Judicial system would be the main one to deem slavery cruel and unconstitutional. I understand that during this time period slavery was a vast operation and was utilized by majority of the United States and even the world, but if you look at it from a modern point of view, slavery was nothing short of heinous. When looking at our current Supreme court Justices, without the amendments of our constitution only four out of the nine would still be in their roles. This goes to show how we have grown and how much our country has learned over the span of 200 years.

    As someone who looks to expand my knowledge in the world of law, these videos were very insightful on how our Judicial system was formed, grown, and how it continues to grow with our country today. My respect and gratitude goes out to all Supreme Court Justices that have served our country, because had it not been for them, our country as we know it would be in shambles. In my eyes, the Judicial branch of our federal government is the most important branch. I believe this because the court ensures that our government does not break away from the core values and ideologies that our founding fathers put in place to build the glorious country we know and love today.