Reflection on SCOTUS History

 The Supreme Court is the highest level court in the country. It is important to know the history of this court because it deals with cases that are related to the constitution. I first started learning about the Supreme Court in middle school and have been continually gaining more knowledge throughout my educational career. Although I do have a lot of knowledge of the Supreme Court, there were some things stated in the article by History.com. 

One interesting fact I read in this article was that the first meeting of the Supreme Court was held in New York City. I personally would've guessed that this meeting was held in Philadelphia. Another interesting thing about this meeting was that it had to be postponed a day because of transportation issues. It doesn't go in-depth on what these travel issues were but, it's interesting that a meeting this big had to be postponed when there were only six justices that had to meet. I also found it interesting that it took over a year for the Supreme Court to give its first decision on a case.

In my opinion, the most important take-away point from the Supreme Court is its case precedent. Over the Supreme Court's lifetime, it has seen some of the most influential cases in American history. These cases have set the standards for not only the Supreme Court, but also the lower courts on how cases should be handled. For example, one of the most famous cases, Texas v. Johnson, in which the Supreme Court ruled that burning a US flag is protected by the first amendment. This set the standard that it is completely legal to burn a US flag. 

The most surprising thing that I learned is that there were originally six justices on the Supreme Court. Today there are nine justices which makes sense because with an odd number of justices there can be no ties when voting. I'm not sure how this problem was not noticed before they officially made the Supreme Court. The article also says that the number of justices has changed multiple times and has ranged from five to ten justices. In 1869 it was decided that there would be nine justices, and that number hasn't changed since then.

The article didn't necessarily change the way that I thought of the Supreme Court. I've had a pretty good understanding of what they do and the types of cases they hear, for the past few years. One thing that was new to me was that the Chief Justice presides over trials of impeachment against the President of the United States. I thought this was interesting because the justices are nominated by the President.