The United States Supreme Court

 We have been taught in every level of education, from elementary school to high school, about how the different branches of government work and how checks and balances help disperse the powers of government equally between all three branches. In the Judicial branch, we find ourselves learning about the Supreme Court, an important part of the justice system and is the pedestal of the American court system. Formed through the early years of the US Constitution, the Supreme Court checks the other two branches of government as well, which are the Executive (President) and Legislative (Congress) branch.

After reading the article created by the History Channel, there was one major thing I did not know about was in 1790, the first group of supreme court justices were set to meet in New York, but was unable to due to transportation issues at the time. However, they were all able to meet and discuss the following day, even though no cases were heard by the court. Instead, they spent their time discussing procedures and how they would go about reviewing and voting on cases. The court would continue to hold two circuit courts a year to discuss plans for more than 100 years until 1891, when Congress shut down this rule due to the unbearable traveling conditions then.

Another fact I did not know about the Supreme Court was the rule set in place my the first President, George Washington. The Judiciary Act of 1789 made it so there were six justices and that each of them would serve as such until they died or retired. Since then, we now have expanded nine justices, due to the Judiciary Act of 1869, set in place by President Ulysses S. Grant, according to an article written by the National Constitution Center in 2018

The biggest take away from this article was that the Supreme Court "has the ultimate jurisdiction over all laws within the United States and is responsible for evaluating the constitutionality of those laws." This means that the Supreme Court is in charge of enforcing the Constitution and laws of America and determining the extend of those laws. Their decisions on cases also determine smaller cases that don't make it to the Supreme Court level. 

Reading this article and listening to our lecture in class has helped me understand more the history of the Supreme Court and the Judicial Branch. Knowing how our countries justice system operates and how it got here is important to me as an American, as this is an important branch of our government and determines what is lawful and what is not.