Blog Post #2: Supreme Court History

 Question 1: What did you learn about the Supreme Court that you didn't already know?

I learned that the Supreme Court was established in 1789 by Article 3 of the Constitution. I also did not know that the original SCOTUS had only 6 judges as opposed to 9 and the number of judges was changed 6 times by Congress. Additionally, I learned that the first Supreme Court case was West v. Barnes and that the first Chief Justice was John Jay. Finally, I didn't know that 115 Justices have served on the Supreme Court.

Question 2: What is the most important take-away point about the Supreme Court?

The most important take-away point about the Supreme Court is that it holds just as much power as the legislative and executive branches. It has the ability to check the actions of the other two branches of government. Personally, I think of the President and Congress before I think of the Supreme Court when discussing the power of the government, but the SCOTUS is just as powerful as the other two.

Question 3: What was the most surprising thing you learned?

The most surprising fact I learned was that William Howard Taft served as both the Supreme Court Justice and the President of the United States, the only person to serve in both of these positions.

Question 4: How did the video/reading change the way you thought of the Supreme Court?

Following my reading of the History Channel's article on the Supreme Court, I see the true power that the Supreme Court has. Their rulings on cases set the precedent for all future cases relating to similar issues and lots of the social changes in the U.S. stem from Supreme Court rulings (i.e. Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda v. Arizona, Texas v. Johnson, Roe v. Wade, etc.).