Nature and Role of the Supreme Court GapFill

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and has been the source of many political disagreements since its inception. Although the Constitution provided for a Supreme Court, the Founding Fathers allowed  the presidentcircuit courtsfederal courtsCongress to determine what type of courts would sit in the judicial system. Initially, when created, the Supreme Court provided for   tensevensixfive justices (including a chief justice) to hear cases. Each type of court has its own responsibilities in the judicial system, hearing different types of case. In 1891 the Judiciary Act was passed, which created the  local courtscitizen courtsdistrict courtscircuit courts in order to assist with the increasing workload of the Supreme Court and to hear cases from the lower courts. The Supreme Court is an appellate court which hears cases from the lower courts. The Constitution also gives the Supreme Court   original jurisdictionthe ability to decide which cases to hearfurther justices in the event of a difficult casesunlimited constitutional powers, which allows any case to be heard directly by the Supreme Court, bypassing all other courts. Usually, these would be cases involving   issues arising between domestic and foreign citizensissues arising between the USA and a different countrypublic ministers, more than two states, citizens residing in different states, or the USA itselfabortion, freedom of information and cruel and unusual punishments.

The Constitution also aimed to make the Supreme Court as independent as possible, although the section on the Supreme Court is much less detailed than sections on Congress and the Executive. However, the Supreme Court has a number of mechanisms which, in theory, allow it to be independent from politics. Firstly, justices  are appointed to life tenures and can't be removed except in impeachment proceedingsaren't subject to media coverage while a case is ongoingare given unlimited funds to hear casesare allowed to make their own rules for each case. This means that if they disagree with elected politicians, they can operate effectively and without fear or reprisal from Congress or the president, which may seem surprising given the numerous times Congress and presidents in history have criticised the decisions of the Supreme Court. Vacancies occur only when a justice retires or dies (or if removed through impeachment). Secondly, justices are   given free and balanced media coveragepaid a fixed salary that cannot be lowered during their term of officefree to determine the amount of evidence allowedgiven free rein over determining how to listen to a case, which keeps them free from the whims and thoughts of any Congress or president if the latter is displeased with the actions of the Supreme Court. Congress has the power to change the number of justices on the Supreme Court, although this has been kept at nine since 1869. Thirdly, although the Constitution allows the president to nominate a justice, he/she must be confirmed by   the Senatereferendumthe Statesthe House Judicial Committee in order to stop Congress and the president from packing the Supreme Court with people of a similar ideology to them and allowing for elected officials to make the final decision. 

Finally, the case in which the Supreme Court was granted its implied powers is   Dred Scott v Sandford 1857Marbury v Madison 1803Plessy v Ferguson 1896Fletcher v Peck 1810. In this case, the Supreme Court effectively granted itself the  ability to determine the supremacy of federal law over state lawpower of judicial review in federal casespower to determine segregation lawspower to increase justices' salaries. This is really the only significant power that the Supreme Court holds, but it is a crucial one as the court determines whether or not an Act or action ultimately is classed as constitutional. The only way to overturn a Supreme Court ruling is to amend the Constitution, which is extremely difficult and has happened only once in history, with the   Eighteenth AmendmentSixteenth AmendmentNineteenth AmendmentSeventeenth Amendment.