O is for Order; In the Highest U.S. Court

The Supreme Court!!!

I bet you were able to guess that today's excursion included a tour of the highest court in the United State: The Supreme Court.  Built in 1935 after the tenth Chief Justice (and former President),William Howard Taft convinced Congress that the third branch of U.S. government deserved it's own space.  In my post about Capitol Hill (H is for Hill), I spoke about the Old Supreme Court Chamber, but was glad to finally get to see the inside of the beautiful courtroom where Brown v. Board, Roe v. Wade, and the most recent case involving Hobby Lobby were decided.

Sandra Day O'Connor's chair!

"Justice, the Guardian of Liberty"

Photography was not allowed inside of the actual courtroom, but I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in law, government, or simply what it means to be a citizen in the U.S. should check out the symbolism present in the Supreme Court courtroom.  I learned about the placement of every chair in the room, as well as who gets to sit in them.  We learned about the trial process, and that it's really not the traditional trial that we are used to.  Both opposing sides get 30 minutes to speak, but that includes any questions that the Justices might ask.  We also learned about the recording device used to document everything that goes on in the courtroom.  Additionally, we learned about the courtroom artists (who sit at the left side of everything) who because of their position in the room, always paint the right profiles of the justices (hopefully that's their "good side").

The second half of the tour explained the process that the Justices go through, the duties they have, as well as how long everything takes.  The first Monday in October is always the first day of the term.  They stop listening to cases in April, and finish up with everything in June (fitting, seeing as Hobby Lobby was just announced a few weeks ago).  There's no method to say how long or short it will take for a decision to be made, the opinions/dissents to be written, and the public to find out what the new ruling is.  Out of 8,000 cases brought to the Supreme Court, less than 1% of them are actually heard (that's 80 cases, still a lot!).  All of these facts were fascinating and I got chills listening to them in the same room where everything happens.

Chief Justice John Marshall (he's the one
who had the Marbury v. Madison case that
decided the Supreme Court could check/overrule
Congress).

Finally, we learned about the conference room that only Justices are allowed to enter (literally only the 9 justices can go in).  Talk about privacy! They have a rule that every justice gets to speak once (starting from the chief justice to the member with the least amount of seniority), before a single justice speaks twice.  Think about if we applied that rule to the classroom!

Our wonderful tour guide left us with a puzzling fact: "The Supreme Court is not actually the "highest court" in the land, because there is a basketball court immediately above the courtroom." Who would have thought! One brave soul asked her whether the Supreme Court Justices ever "shoot some hoops," and was met with her witty answer: "Of course not, because they are always on the bench!"  After some good laughs and a museum-like tour of the rest of the building, I headed back to work to prepare for the BIG presentation I would be giving later in the week (you'd better believe there will be a post about that!).


If you have time, be sure to check out the documentary on C-Span that interviews some of the Justices in regards to the history, construction, and symbolism of the Supreme Court!