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How Does The US Supreme Court Work?
How Does The US Supreme Court Work?
The Supreme Court is the nation’s nation, and make decisions that affect all order of seniority, weighs in. It is
sometimes a lively debate, other times
highest appellate court, which means an orderly recitation. After everyone
the vast majority of its work involves
re-examining cases that have already
Americans. Here, we look at what goes on has spoken, the justices take a vote,
and opinions are assigned based on the
been handled in lower courts. results.
Parties that lose at trial or on their
initial appeals can petition the high
in the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court. If the chief justice is among those
voting with the winning side, he gets
court’s nine justices for a final review By Stephen Henderson, McClatchy Newspapers to assign who writes the opinion. If
of the case. he’s on the losing side, the justice with
The justices agree to hear cases the most seniority on the winning side
when they find a so-called “federal” gets to assign the majority opinion.
issue to resolve: conflicting interpreta- The justices on the losing side will fre-
tions of federal laws, regulations or the quently write dissents. Once the opin-
U.S. Constitution. ions are finished, they’re circulated
The justices get first crack at among all the justices, who may sug-
resolving only cases that raise ques- gest edits or changes to the majority
tions beyond the jurisdiction of any opinion. Sometimes at this stage, a
lower court, such as disputes between justice in the majority finds himself
states. (Think of arguments over water more persuaded by a minority opinion,
rights, for example.) and switches his vote. That could
The high court does not hold trials, result in a dissent becoming a majority
with witnesses, evidence and a jury. opinion, or vice versa. The justices’
Instead, lawyers argue their cases deliberations are secret, however, and
directly to the justices, first in written they never explain how the decisions
briefs and then during a live session. are reached.
Once a case is heard, it can take any-
where from a month to six months for
the justices to issue a decision.
Their rulings are as final as it gets
in the law: No other court can undo
their decisions.
The job of Supreme Court justice the time of their appointments. But Justice Antonin Scalia, for example,
is one of the few that’s defined in many others have not been. John is a strident adherent to the idea that
the Constitution, but not accompa- Marshall, perhaps the most impor- the court should decide cases exclu-
nied by a list of qualifications. tant chief justice of the United sively by trying to divine the origi-
Justices, the Constitution says, are States, was a Virginia congressman nal or “textual” meaning of the
to be appointed by the president and secretary of state before he was Constitution and federal laws.
with the “advice and consent” of the appointed. Earl Warren, who led the Justice Stephen Breyer, on the
Senate, and they shall serve “during court through the tumultuous 1960s, other hand, believes that the justices
good behavior,” which in practical was governor of California. Chief ought to merely consider original
terms means the rest of their lives. Justice William H. Rehnquist, who meaning in their quest to decide
But there is no age requirement. died in 2005, had previously worked cases in a way that expands citizens’
And the Constitution doesn’t say the in the Department of Justice as chief role in democratic institutions. But
G A RY FA B I A N O / A B A C A P R E S S / M C T justices have to be judges, or even counsel to the Attorney General. both were legal academics, govern-
U.S. Supreme Court justices (front row, from left) Anthony Kennedy, lawyers. Technically, the The current justices are an eclec- ment lawyers and lower court judges
John Paul Stevens (retiring), Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., Constitution does not even require tic mix of personalities and judicial before they were nominated to the
Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Back row, from left: Samuel that justices be U.S. citizens. philosophies, but all were accom- Supreme Court. For the first time in
Alito Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Throughout history, many of the plished lawyers or judges before many years, the court has no mem-
Sotomayor. justices have, indeed, been judges at being appointed to the high court. ber who held elective office.