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| The Supreme Court |
The
Supreme Court of the United States was established under the Constitution to protect
the law of the country. It consists of “justices,” (one Chief Justice and 8
justices) who are judges appointed by the president. Their biggest responsibility
is to enforce the Constitution and make sure it is being followed.
It
all started in 1801, when the government relocated to Washington, the Supreme Court
was placed in the unfinished Capitol at the time and John Marshall, a lawyer
from Virginia was appointed Chief Justice. At this time, the court was issued
to deal with the most important responsibility the Supreme Court could act upon
which was deeming an action of Congress as unconstitutional.
One
would think the beginning of the Constitution which states, “We the People of
the United States…” would mean ALL people living in the U.S., regardless of what
color or class they were. Well at first, it did not. This led to infamous Dred vs.
Sanford case where Dred Scott, a slave from Missouri wanted to declare his freedom
under Congress. Chief Justice Robert Brooke Taney asserted that Congress didn’t
have the power to ban slavery and “that blacks could never be citizens.” This
resulted in the Civil War and after the war ended, the Constitution was finally
revised to include ALL persons living in the U.S. no matter their
circumstances. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th
amendment assured equality of African Americans and the 15th
amendment guaranteed voting rights to African American [men].
The process of a case
getting to the Supreme Court starts off as a petition. Each Justice is
assigned a case to decide on and meet up with one another to determine which cases
they will accept. After all other parties do their part, the final
responsibility of the court is for the Justices to meet up once again to make
their decision.
The Supreme Court is the
highest court of all courts and is “the most powerful judicial body on earth.” It
has housed some of the biggest cases in our country such as Marbury v. Madison
(1803), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Roe
v. Wade (1973). To this day, their biggest concern is to uphold the Constitution
and bring justice to the American people.
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