Blog Post #2

 The Supreme Court

Question 1: What did you learn about the Supreme Court that you didn't already know?

One thing I learned about the Supreme Court that I didn't already know was that after the President nominates a replacement for the Supreme Court, it goes through a whole process before actually deciding on a new replacement. After the President nominates a candidate and the candidate completes a detailed questionnaire, where it goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee after and sits for a few hearings. But I wasn't aware that the process was a lot longer than what I thought it'd be. The committee doesn't actually vote on the nominee, instead they vote on sending the nomination to the full Senate, to which the full Senate holds hearings on the nominee. Eventually this leads to a majority vote required by the Senate to decide whether or not the nominee is a potential candidate for the position. 

Question 2: What is the most important take-away point about the Supreme Court?

One of the most important take-away point about the Supreme Court is that when a Supreme Court vacancy occurs due to death, retirement, or any major conflict that might have arised, the President has the power to nominate a replacement, but that doesn't mean the nominee, chosen by the President will actually get the position on the Supreme Court. Determining who will get a position on the Supreme Court is a lot more detailed than most would think it is as it goes through a whole process. I feel that this is very important to keep in mind as there are a lot of people who think that the President has the most powers. 

Question 3: What was the most surprising thing you learned?

The most surprising thing I learned about the Supreme Court was that each justice serve until their death, retirement, etc. Although this wasn't as surprising to me, I still had no idea that they had to serve their positions for the rest of their life. This was just crazy to me because I personally feel like I could never do that for the rest of my life, even if it's something I enjoy doing in the future. I feel like I would want to go into retirement after a certain age, and although they can serve until retirement, some do it until their death, which is very weird to think.

Question 4: How did the video change the way you thought of the Supreme Court?

The video didn't really change much of my thoughts on the Supreme Court as I already knew the Supreme Court had a lot of power when it came to the judicial review, One thing I learned in this video that changed the way I thought about the Supreme Court was that it plays an essential role in the limit of powers within each branch of the government. When the video explained the whole process of the a vacancy, it made me realize that the Supreme Court does its job in ensuring that the process of picking a candidate is fair and that the decision isn't only up to the President.