The Supreme Court, established in 1789, is the highest federal court in the country and has the power to oversee the actions of two other branches of government. When the Supreme Court was first formed it was made up of six justices, now nine justices hold power in the Supreme Court (as pictured above). The justices are nominated by the U.S. president and approved or denied by the U.S. Senate. There is also a chief justice, the one in charge of presiding over the Court and setting the agenda for weekly meetings, he or she is also required to sit on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, they also preside over impeachment hearings.
According to the Supreme Court Procedures, the Supreme Court gets more than 7,000 cases a year, but they only choose to accept about 100-150. The cases that they do choose to accept impact our country, either for better or for worse. For example, the Dred Scott v. Sanford was a decade-long fight for freedom by an enslaved black man named Dred Scott. The case went through a number of smaller courts and eventually ended up at the Supreme Court. On May 15,1854, Scott lost his case in federal court therefore he and his family members were held in slavery. Scott appealed his case to the Supreme Court, but this time he had many people in his corner, like abolitionists, powerful politicians, and high profile attorneys. Unfortunately, that was not enough and on March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court ruled against Scott, causing him to lose his freedom once again. Meanwhile, in 1896, they ruled in favor of upholding state segregation laws, with the Plessy v. Ferguson case.
The Supreme Court also handled and still handle important cases as well. Just to name a couple, Mapp v. Ohio, which said that evidence obtained illegally cannot be used in a court of law, and Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down state anti-sodomy laws.
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