Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is one of the most important institutions in the United States, yet many people do not know much about it or of its history. By reading the article on the history of the US Supreme Court on History.com I learned many things which I did not already know. 

Before reading this article, I did not know much about the beginnings of the Supreme Court. The court was originally created in 1790 and was made up of 6 justices, not 9. The court also did not hear its first case until 1791, as the meetings during the first term were reserved for organizational matters. That first case, on August 3, 1791, would end up being a very small, unimportant case about a financial dispute between a family and a farmer who owed a debt to them, something very uncharacteristic of the Supreme Court we see today. 

I think that one of the biggest takeaways from reading this article is how integral the Supreme Court is to the everyday life of US citizens. Many people, especially in the past decade or so, blame presidents for the bad or good things happening in the country. In reality the people who make the decisions which shape our lives are Congress and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has made crucial decisions, good and bad, on cases dealing with topics such as racial inequality(Plessy v. Ferguson), rights to a lawyer(Gideon v. Wainwright), abortion(Roe v. Wade), and much more. What this article made me realize is just how influential a group of 9 people can be to our society and how much of an impact they can make.