Supreme Court History

The Supreme Court is the highest ranked court in the United States. It has great power when it comes to making decisions that will affect the nation as a whole. In this paper we will discuss certain points of the Supreme Courts history and how every point has led up to the court today and the decisions they make. Each point we will be discussing now is the history of the court and how they became to be Supreme Court.

We will first begin to talk about the make-up of the court. It is organized by the Chief Justice. It was established by the U.S. constitution, it was implemented in 1789, under article three, the Judiciary Act of 1789. The court was written for six justices appointed to the court but for almost all of history there has been nine

The Supreme Court has also evolved over time when chief justice John Marshall became the fourth chief of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1801. He is largely responsible for establishing the Supreme Court's role in federal government. One of Marshall's first landmark cases was Marbury v. Madison, which established the basis of judicial review. John Marshall ruled that the Supreme Court lacked the power to make Madison hand over the commission, although he thought that Marbury had the right to have it. In the process, Marshall determined that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789—authorizing the Supreme Court to issue writs to government officials—was unconstitutional. John Marshall served for 34 years before his death at the age of 79. He played a pivotal role in determining the Supreme Court's role in federal government, establishing it as the ultimate authority in interpreting the Constitution. There have been many chief justices throughout history. From the first chief justice John Jay, who served from 1789 to 1795, to our current chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr. He is the 17th chief justice in the Supreme Court history. Roberts he was nominated by George w. Bush and then was appointed September 29th, 2005 and is currently still serving. As time went on and the Supreme Court has had many chief justices and because of them the United States

For the first one hundred and eighty years, justices were almost all white male Protestants. The first African American to serve was Thurgood Marshall who was an associate justice serving from October 2nd, 1967 until October 1st, 1991. Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was best known for his high success rate in arguing and before the Supreme Court and for the victory win in the famous case Brown vs. Board of Education. On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement, inspiring education reform everywhere and forming the legal means of challenging segregation in all areas of society. In 1986, Antonin Scalia was the first Italian-American. Prior to the 20th century, a few Roman Catholics were appointed, but concerns about diversity of the court were mainly in terms of geographic diversity. In the 20th century saw the first Jewish justice, Lewis Brandeis, in 1916. The next justice was the first female justice who was appointed to the Supreme Court. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was elected in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. O’Connor was a key swing in vote in many important cases, including the upholding of Roe vs. Wade. In this historic case the Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas interpretation of abortion law and making abortion