How do Cases Reach the Supreme Court? | Your Democracy — Transcript

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1. 0:00foreign
2. 0:06[Music]
3. 0:09most of us learn about the president and
4. 0:12Congress
5. 0:14but what about our judicial branch
6. 0:17especially the Supreme Court of the
7. 0:19United States article 3 of the U.S
8. 0:22Constitution says the judicial power of
9. 0:25the United States shall be vested in one
10. 0:28supreme court and end such inferior
11. 0:30courts as the Congress made from time to
12. 0:33time ordained and establish
13. 0:37Congress established the Supreme Court
14. 0:39back in 1789. the Supreme Court has
15. 0:43power equal to Congress and the
16. 0:45president thanks to Chief Justice John
17. 0:48Marshall who created judicial review the
18. 0:51Supreme Court has the duty to determine
19. 0:53whether the other two branches are
20. 0:56following the Constitution the U.S
21. 0:58Supreme Court has one chief justice and
22. 1:00eight associate justices the chief
23. 1:03justice is the leader of the court and
24. 1:05decides who will write the decision and
25. 1:08how the court runs
26. 1:10our Constitution doesn't exactly say how
27. 1:13many justices should be on the court at
28. 1:15first there are only five there have
29. 1:18been as many as ten we've had nine
30. 1:21justices since 1869. some attempts to
31. 1:24add more justices or pack the court have
32. 1:28basically failed
33. 1:30to get a job on the highest court a
34. 1:32person must be nominated by the
35. 1:34president they do not have to be a
36. 1:37natural-born citizen and unlike the
37. 1:40president who must be 35 years old to
38. 1:43hold office the Constitution does not
39. 1:45require any minimum age to be a Supreme
40. 1:49Court Justice
41. 1:51Joseph's story was only 32 when he
42. 1:54became a Justice
43. 1:55the Constitution doesn't even say the
44. 1:57person must be a lawyer
45. 1:59but it would be pretty difficult to get
46. 2:01the job without legal training since a
47. 2:04Supreme Court Justice must decide cases
48. 2:06from every state as well as the federal
49. 2:08courts and understand all legal issues
50. 2:13once nominated by the president the
51. 2:16Constitution requires the Senate to give
52. 2:18its advice and consent
53. 2:21Senators hold a hearing something like a
54. 2:25high-level job interview and ask lots
55. 2:29and lots and lots of questions it can be
56. 2:34intense
57. 2:35but
58. 2:36once confirmed by the Senate our new
59. 2:39justice has a lifetime job justices can
60. 2:43be impeached but never fired that's the
61. 2:48purpose of Lifetime appointments
62. 2:50judicial freedom
63. 2:53just how does a case make it all the way
64. 2:57to the Supreme Court
65. 2:58well it's a long road Federal cases
66. 3:03start with a trial and District Court
67. 3:05with a judge and a jury the loser at The
68. 3:09District Court can appeal up to the next
69. 3:11level called the United States Circuit
70. 3:15Court of Appeals at this level a panel
71. 3:19of Judges hear their legal issue not the
72. 3:22entire case and there's no jury
73. 3:25after the Circuit Court of Appeals the
74. 3:28losing party can appeal to the United
75. 3:31States Supreme Court
76. 3:33states have their own trial appellate
77. 3:36and high courts state courts can only
78. 3:38make decisions for their specific State
79. 3:41however a decision made in a state's
80. 3:45High Court can then be appealed to the
81. 3:48United States Supreme Court
82. 3:50whether it is from federal or state
83. 3:53court the appealing party or a
84. 3:55petitioner must file a writ of Sir she o
85. 3:59Rory asking the Supreme Court to review
86. 4:03their case justices then vote in secret
87. 4:06whether or not to take a case at least
88. 4:10four of the nine justices must be in
89. 4:12agreement
90. 4:14with more courts lawyers and judges than
91. 4:17any other Nation there are a lot of
92. 4:21requests over ten thousand each year the
93. 4:26Supreme Court only grants about 200 of
94. 4:28those 10 000 Appeals
95. 4:31that's a whole lot of disappointed
96. 4:34people
97. 4:35from October until April the court hears
98. 4:38oral arguments that means two sides
99. 4:42stand before those nine justices and
100. 4:44argue their case the justices ask
101. 4:47questions and attorneys must think fast
102. 4:49any decision the court makes will impact
103. 4:53more than just the parties involved it
104. 4:56will be the law of the land
105. 5:00the Supreme Court interprets the
106. 5:02Constitution and follows precedent
107. 5:06not president
108. 5:10precedent is the established case law
109. 5:13based on previous Supreme Court
110. 5:14decisions judges look at those prior
111. 5:18cases to see if similar legal issues
112. 5:20have been decided before
113. 5:22that doesn't mean president is always
114. 5:25followed the Court's interpretation of
115. 5:28the Constitution can change over time
116. 5:30especially as new judges change the
117. 5:33composition of the court with their
118. 5:35ideas
119. 5:36so sometimes the Supreme Court will
120. 5:39overturn or reverse a prior decision for
121. 5:42example in Plessy versus Ferguson the
122. 5:46court found that racial segregation was
123. 5:48legal and then years later in 1954 they
124. 5:54ruled that segregation was
125. 5:56unconstitutional in the case of Brown
126. 5:58versus Board of Education
127. 6:01the Supreme Court has the power to
128. 6:04overturn Decisions by lower courts and
129. 6:07find federal laws to be unconstitutional
130. 6:10however Congress can pass a new law
131. 6:14clarifying the overturned law in order
132. 6:16to make it constitutional
133. 6:18in the end it only takes five of the
134. 6:21nine justices to make a decision that
135. 6:24can change the entire country
136. 6:27whatever they decide we must follow even
137. 6:32if we don't want to
138. 6:34let's review the Supreme Court of the
139. 6:37United States falls under article 3 the
140. 6:40judicial branch there are nine justices
141. 6:43the court ensures the president and
142. 6:46Congress follow the Constitution it can
143. 6:50make rulings on state cases and federal
144. 6:53cases once a case is decided that
145. 6:57creates the law of the land for all of
146. 7:00us
147. 7:01this is your democracy
148. 7:04keep it strong