The Concrete Footprint

The Legacy of the Supreme Court

Gavel in a Court Room

Photo Credit: Wix Images

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Since the decision for the Supreme Court to be the branch that is required to interpret the law, there has been must prestige and stress has been added to the importance of being a supreme court justice. In the constitution it lays out that the courts must decide upon cases based on the supreme court and that the supreme court must interpret the law without bias and for the good of the people.

To be a supreme court justice one must understand that what they say and their opinions are always leaving an impact; every word. Some times the decisions of the Supreme Court with align with the beliefs of the majority of the country and other times it would not. The most important thing to take from the Supreme Court is that every decision matters in making history, altering history, and correcting what was wrong in the past.

The Supreme Court has a lasting impression on how the nation will act and also citizen will abide. For example, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson when the Supreme Court said that the Separate But Equal clause was okay because blacks and white both had the "same" amenities brought the nation into the Jim Crow Era. This was corrected years later when the Separate but Equal clause was overturned.

Even though the job of interpreting the constitution and the law is one of the most important and highly respected duties to our nation, we must also realize that this job is very difficult and certain facts and circumstances is what makes the justices question if one party is in violation of the constitution.

The journey of interpreting the constitution is not always perfect. We must remember that the Supreme Court is made up of 9 justices, who may I point out are human. No human is perfect, however in that position, many try to make the right and just decision the first time.

In one instance the court was wrong, as we saw in later years was in the Dred Scott case. In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that African-Americans were not citizens and did not have any rights. This was later overturned by the 14th amendment.

The interpretation of the constitution is forever changing. This is why we must take the call to action to take the time to interpret the constitution ourselves and decide what it mean.

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