Intro
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I learned so much from these videos. While in high school, I learned about the supreme court on a very shallow surface level. Because of this, I always thought that the supreme court was boring and not worth looking into. However, after watching the video on the inner workings of the US Supreme Court, I realized it is so much more interesting than it seems from the surface.
What I learned
I never realized the ratio of cases taken to cases received. Of around seven thousand cases a year, the Supreme court only takes one hundred. This is a little less than two percent of cases each year! They really only take cases where lower courts disagreed or cases in which big constitutional questions are asked. I also did not know that justices had to write long opinion pieces explaining why a decision was made. Going along with this, justices are also encouraged to write an opinion piece if they disagree with a decision or reasoning. I think that that is a great way to hear multiple sides or opinions on a case.
My most-important take-away
My most important take-away from these videos was exactly how the Supreme Court worked. First, a writ of certiorari is filed and given to a singular justice for review along with about a hundred other writs. If chosen, then the case is brought before the other justices where four must agree to hear the case. After that, a court date is set with all nine justices and an attorney from each side. Each attorney gets only half an hour to present his case while being grilled by all the justices at once (this has got to be stressful). At the end of this, a preliminary vote is made with a majority rule. Then, a justice from the majority side is assigned to draft an opinion piece on the case to be presented. This is when the opposing side writes their dissent. Finally, after months of deliberation, the justices do a final vote.
Most surprising thing I learned
The most surprising thing I learned was that most of the supreme court's work is done in silence. I had always imagined a bustling courtroom or a round table with heated arguments. However, most of the justice's time is spent in silence writing opinions or reviewing cases.
How my thoughts have been changed
Honestly, the video on the supreme court was very eye-opening for me. Since I had only learned about the supreme court briefly in my high school government course, I never really understood it. This video has shown me that the way decisions and laws are made is actually a very complicated and long process. The justice's jobs are definitely way harder than I thought.
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