Blog #2: Supreme Court

I learned that after deciding on a case, the Supreme Court Justices of the United States will publish an official opinion to explain how they decided to vote and to share their individual opinions on the decision. Drafts of these written opinions take approximately four week to write, and then they still can be revised for months before being published. The writings will be published at the end of June by the end of that court’s term. Copies of the written opinions get released to the press to be seen by everyone in the country.

The most important take-away point about the Supreme Court is that it has no secrets. Everything that is done in the Supreme Court is open to the public to see. Citizens can learn everything that goes on in the decision process. The transparency of the court is so important because we get to know exactly how the response was made. We get to understand how that decision will then change things throughout the country. Although the Supreme Court gives only thirty minutes to each side of a case to present their arguments, the decisions they make affect our lives for years. 

The most surprising thing I learned was that there was an unexpected friendship between Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia (Rosen, 2023). They hated each other politically and had many political disagreements, but outside of politics they were actually great friends. This surprised me because even though the two justices did not see eye to eye in the court room, they were able to put their differences aside to have a friendship. This surprised me, because it is not an easy thing to do. It shows that Ginsburg and Scalia were both really passionate about their opinions to be able to hold onto them and still be friends. 

 After watching these videos, my thoughts on the Supreme Court changed because I realized how difficult it must be for the justices to make their decisions in line with their political and personal values.