Source: http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 22:40:49+00:00

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The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest federal court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States to interpret and decide questions of federal law, including the Constitution of the United States. As Justice Robert H. Jackson once famously remarked "We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final".
It is head of the judicial branch of the United States Government. The other two branches of the United States Government are the executive branch and the legislative branch. The Supreme Court is sometimes known by the acronyms SCOTUS and USSC (for United States Supreme Court).
As with all federal courts, the jurisdiction of the court is limited. While the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in a few cases such as suits between states, most of its work consists of appellate review of cases from state supreme courts or from lower federal courts.
Its jurisdiction is limited by Article III of the U.S. Constitution to "cases" and "controversies" arising under federal law. Cases that arise from the state court systems may only be heard by the United States Supreme Court if they present an issue of federal law. In those cases in which the state court decided the case on an independent and adequate state ground, the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to hear it.
Although not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the Court, like all U.S. courts, is accepted to have the power of judicial review. The 1803 case Marbury v. Madison established that the Supreme Court can strike down laws passed by Congress that exceed Congress's constitutional powers. Although used reluctantly at first, this power has been frequently used in recent decades.
Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas are generally considered to be the conservative wing of the court. Justices Souter, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Stevens are generally considered to the liberal wing. Justices Kennedy and O'Connor are typically seen as moderates, and hence are the swing votes who often determine the outcome of close cases.
The Supreme Court convened for the first time on February 1, 1790 in the Merchants Exchange Building in New York City. It moved to Philadelphia and finally to Washington, DC as the location of the national capital changed. For much of its history, it met in various spaces within the Capitol (and in a private house for a brief period when the Capitol was burned during the War of 1812).
In 1935 it was finally moved to an independent structure more befitting its independent stature within the federal government, at the urging of William Howard Taft, who had been both President of the United States and Chief Justice. One commentator observed at the time that the building, located across the street from the Capitol, had fine high windows for the Court to throw the New Deal out of.
The Court achieved its current influence in the life of the United States during the tenure of Chief Justice John Marshall. He was appointed to the office by John Adams in the final days of Adams' presidency. As a political opponent of the Jeffersonian Republicans, Marshall delivered a number of opinions that they found uncongenial, strengthening the Judicial branch at the expense of the Executive branch and asserting the Court's monopoly on the interpretation of the Constitution. Among these cases were Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), formally asserting the Court's role in judicial review, and United States v. Peters, 5 Cranch 115 (1809), affirming that the power of the federal government was greater than any individual state. Marbury, in particular, is arguably the single most important cases in the court's history; it began the process of judicial review, allowing the Supreme Court to strike down laws of Congress it deemed unconstitutional. This model has been adopted by countries throughout the world.
It is worth noting that the Supreme Court, unlike the Legislative or the Executive branches, has no budgetary or military power at its disposal. It relies solely upon respect for the Constitution for adherence to its judgments. At the conclusion of United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), many feared that Richard Nixon would refuse to turn over the Watergate tapes (an example of what legal scholars call executive nonacquiescence). Nixon, however, complied.
Congress determines the number of justices on the Court. There have been nine justices on the Court since 1869. There were originally six until 1807 when a seventh justice was added. In 1837 an eighth and ninth were added with a tenth in 1863. The Judicial Circuits Act of 1866 called for the removal of three seats as justices retired. This act was passed to deny President Andrew Johnson from making any Supreme Court appointments. One seat was removed in 1866 and a second in 1867. Before a third seat was removed, the Congress passed the Circuit Judges Act of 1869 restoring the number of seats to nine. Since 1869, the Court has been kept at nine, both for political reasons as well as practical necessity. Subsequent attempts to change the number of justices have since been rejected.
The last notable attempt to alter the number of justices was on February 5, 1937 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed an increase in the size of the Court to fifteen justices, one additional seat for each justice over age 70, to deal with a Court overturning of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. Many politicians at the time and historians since scorned this plan to "pack the court". The proposal failed on July 22 when the United States Senate voted against it.
The Supreme Court delivered a highly controversial 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), that ended weeks of bitter legal maneuvering between lower courts following the 2000 presidential election. The decision raised criticisms that the Court had overstepped its bounds by trying and failing to provide a judicial resolution for an intractable political dispute, much as the Court had attempted to do nearly 150 years earlier in Dred Scott v. Sanford. Justice Stevens' and Justice Breyer's dissenting opinions echoed this criticism, albeit faintly, by reference to the wound that the Court had inflicted on itself, an allusion to Charles Evans Hughes' description of the Dred Scott decision as a self-inflicted wound.
As of June 2005, there has not been a vacancy on the bench for over ten years, a period of time exceeded only once in court history (1812-1823). However, with Justice Rehnquist's illness, there is much speculation over potential nominees to the Supreme Court of the United States.
In order to file pleadings or argue a case before the Supreme Court, an attorney must be a member of the Bar of the Court. The basic requirements for admission are that the applicant must have been admitted at least three years previously to the bar of the highest court of a state or territory of the US, be recommended for admission by two other members of the bar of the Supreme Court not related to the applicant by blood or marriage, and not have been publicly disciplined by any court or professional disciplinary agency for the previous year.
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