The Supreme Court of the United States of America
About the Supreme Court
Provision is made for the Supreme Court in Article III of the Constitution. But also, according to the Constitution, Congress gets to decide how to organize the Supreme Court. Now we have nine Supreme Court Justices with one of them serving as the Chief Justice (I'll get to why we only have eight justices right now later on). But, we haven't always had nine; we've had as few as five and as many as ten. The number nine was picked after the Civil War.
Justices are appointed by the President and approved by Congress. Congressional approval can be very intense with some prospective justices. Since the beginning of the Supreme Court, 29 nominees have been rejected on their first try; a few of those made it through the approval process on a second try. Justices generally serve for life, but we currently have three retired Associate Justices.
The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction (meaning that they can hear an original (not an appealed) case in disputes between states. This is the exclusive right of the Supreme Court. They can also hear original cases that involve disputes with ambassadors, consuls and vice counsels and other public ministers of foreign states. They can also hear original cases that involve a State against a citizen of another state or an alien, and also between the Federal Government and one or more States. The Supreme Court can also hear appeals that involve a point of constitutional or federal law. However, they do not generally have to hear a case that is submitted to them. In fact, they generally only hear a small fraction of the cases submitted to them.
More later about the Supreme Court, but here's a little thing of interest from the past. A Regan nominee had to have his name withdrawn when it was revealed that he smoked pot with his students at Harvard Law School. Now that would have been an interesting justice.
Recent Supreme Court News
What are the Supremes up to these days?
