SCOTUS

 The Supreme Court of the United States is the most powerful judicial body on earth. The power

they have rests on public faith in their fairness and ability to do their job. The job of a Supreme Court justice is to interpret the constitution and to subsequently apply this interpretation to various matters of law. There have been just over 100 justices with all of them serving an average of 16 years. The Supreme Court's sole job is to interpret the constitution.

Cases start in a district court. This is what we call a "trial of facts". Said case then travels up to an appellate court. In this court they must hear your case. This trial is what's considered "a trial of law". This just means that, in this case, they are looking to see if the lower court allowed for due process during your case. Then, after all of this, a petition is made to the Supreme Court in order to get them to preside over the case. However, this court goes through what's called a Writ of Certiorari. This means that the Supreme Court has the option to deny a case if it doesn't think it's worth taking a look at it. The court and it justices receive just over about 8,000 cases a year (only about 80 are actually heard each year). If and only if a case is chosen, then it gets allowed an oral argument where attorneys from both sides of the case will get to plead each of their respective cases. The Court's sole job during these cases is to interpret the

constitution and apply that interpretation of the constitution to each specific case. A high profile example of this power being used is in the case titled "Marbury v Madison". In this case we get to see the Supreme Court deny a man the ability to gain his commission by the Writ of Mandamus. The Supreme Court is one of the few places where, "...the public never has a direct ability to influence the decision through the ballot box." - Justice Steven Breyer.

The issue that continues to present itself in Supreme Court rulings over time present themselves on the prospect of fairness, or in some case the lack thereof. While watching a documentary video on the Supreme Court I noticed that some of these justices seem to have views that have already been established on certain case before they even get a chance to hear the case. Now obviously, said justices are humans. With that being said it's difficult, if at all possible, for them to come into hearings without preconceived notions or opinions that are already molded to think what they're already set on thinking. Now, how far is too far when having these preconceived notions? I mean in all honesty you have to ask yourself, why are these cases even being heard if the justices already hold opinions on them. Justice John Breyer is heard saying that he even goes as far as using the oral arguments in a case to ask questions that he wants to be on his colleagues minds. From what I've been able to gather, we as Americans just have to trust that these fellow human beings who have accepted the responsibility to uphold our greatest sanctity as Americans do just that. This trust and belief that a choice selection of specially chosen citizens stand both literally and morally above the very people that make them the most powerful judicial body on earth.