My Thoughts on the Supreme Court...
Today I will be writing my blog post about the Supreme Court video we watched recently in my Media Law & Literacy class.
The Supreme Court is known as "the most powerful judicial body on earth". All decisions made are in private and based on public faith. Over time, there have been just over a hundred Supreme Court Justice's who have all served an average of sixteen years at a time. It is hoped that whoever is nominated for Supreme Court Justice by the President, will shape the rest of the court.
The Supreme Court receives around 1,000 cases a year, most of which revolve around certiorari, which means they are arguing that the ruling received at lower court was not correct. Only about a hundred of these cases are accepted a year, where they are sent to the Justice's once every week. The Justice's then meet weekly to decide which cases will be accepted by the court and then to vote on cases that have been argued already. Justice's cannot bring topics they want to court, the issues have to be brought to them.
After hearing arguments, the justices gather alone to vote and decide the case. One justice then has to write an opinion on the case which requires research that is done by law clerks, along with preparing for oral argument and screening for new petitions. The opinion drafts are usually completed in a month and are then sent to all other justices. The drafts can be revised multiple times to persuade the other justices to agree on the opinion. This process can go on for months while different views are accommodated.
The court's goal is to release opinions and announce decisions by the end of the term in June for all current cases. This is a very strenuous process for all justices that can take quite some time to adjust to. It takes quite some time to get used to being a Supreme Court Justice, but once adjusted they are able to work efficiently which is what leads to an average sixteen year term, and many times longer than that.
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