Nine people. Unelected by the public. Yet when they speak, the country listens. That's the Supreme Court. It's written into the Constitution itself. No police force enforces its rulings. No army backs it up. And still, when it hands down a decision, Americans obey. In all of American history, only 100 people have ever held the title of Supreme Court justice. That number is small enough to stop you in your tracks. Before they debate an issue, the justices do something almost old-fashioned: they shake each other's hands. Then the questions start flying — and they're not random. Each justice is probing for something different. Oral argument isn't just theater. It actually moves outcomes. John Marshall changed everything. In Marbury v. Madison, he struck down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. That single decision earned the Court its public respect — the kind it still trades on today. Not every chapter is proud, though. The Dred Scott decision was only resolved after the Civil War, when the country abolished slavery and expanded voting rights. The 14th Amendment followed, guaranteeing due process and shielding citizens from abuses of state power. Understanding the Court also means understanding the ladder beneath it. District courts deal in facts — that's where appeals begin. Appellate courts deal in law, checking whether lawyers and lower courts got due process right. The Supreme Court sits above both, reviewing what came before — and it doesn't have to take every case. That power to pick and choose is called certiorari. There's only one way to overrule the Supreme Court: amend the Constitution. A few things stuck with me. Learning that just 100 justices have ever served felt oddly small for such a powerful institution. Learning that the Court once upheld Plessy v. Ferguson felt like a gut punch. But maybe the most surprising part? We treat the Supreme Court like a black box. The justices themselves don't see it that way at all.
AI DISCLOSURE - AI was used in a limited way in this assignment. I took ample notes while watching a 20 minute video about the U.S Supreme Court. I then personalized those notes by adding my point of view, for example, things I found surprising or interesting about what I learned. I then used CLAUDE AI to help me clean up the text for grammar spelling and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions.
