Supreme Court Case Study

Question #3
Brief description of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court of the United States of America is the law of the land and no other political entities or judicial powers can rule over the decisions made by the Supreme Court. Article 3 of the Constitution establishes a framework for a federal judiciary system to be implemented (Harr, Hess, Orthman, Kingsbury 2015). The Supreme Court was established by the Federal Judiciary act of 1789. The Supreme Court is composed of 9 justices, which was the number of justices agreed on in 1869. The fate of a case is decided by the justices and establishes the law of the land with a majority vote. Justices Composing the Supreme Court are said to be the greatest legal minds of the Country. The United States President nominates a justice candidate, and the Senate confirms the nomination made by the President (Harr et al 2015).

By reviewing the nominated justices record, the President can tell how the nominated justice might decide on future cases (conservative or liberal). The Supreme Court has varied from being a liberal court to being amore conservative court through out time. “Liberal decisions handed down by the Supreme Courts are usually considered to be “pro-person, accused or convicted of a crime, pro-civil liberties or civil rights claimants, pro-indigents, pro-American Indians and anti-government” (Harr, et al 2015 page 66). Conservative decisions handed down by the Supreme Court on the other hand tend to focus on the punishment of those who break the law (Harr, et al