The history and workings of the U.S. Supreme Court : Blog #2

Something I learned about the Supreme Court that I didn’t already know was that the Court elevates itself above other branches of the government. The Supreme Court gives itself a sort of a dog-watching role. People today even view the Supreme Court as the primary interpreter of the Constitution. 

The most crucial takeaway about the Supreme Court is understanding the term Judicial Review. Judicial Review has a specific definition: the power of the court to review all branches of government and deem them constitutional or not. This is essential to the Supreme Court because without of a written constitution, it, in the absence, provides necessary checks and balances. 

The most surprising thing I learned was Jefferson and Madison's ignoration of the federal law. They both thought, “How can you have freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but you can’t criticize the government.” They had these feelings because they didn't follow the central meaning of the First Amendment. To resolve this problem, they wrote the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, which later appeared in the Sedition Act. These resolutions were extreme and urged the governments of Kentucky and Virginia to ignore the law and not even enforce it. Nullification was then put into place; this is a constitutional theory that individual states can invalidate federal laws or judicial decisions they deem unconstitutional. In the 1800’s, the debate was solved, Jefferson was elected, and John Adams left the white house. This was a good thing because the Addiction Act went away once Adams left the White House. 

The video changed how I think about the Supreme Court because I now understand how much power it has. The Supreme Court could throw you in jail or sentence you to death while also protecting us and keeping us aligned. Another thing that the video changed in how I thought of the Supreme Court is how federalism works. Federalism is when the federal governments are forced to share power with state governments. This is a centrally important idea in our system: a power-sharing arrangement.  There are only certain things the federal government gets to take charge of, which I didn’t know, but this is because they cannot reign over the individual.