Post 2: The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court

The Courtroom of the Supreme Court

In 1789, Article III of the constitution did not only grant congress the power to create federal courts but also established what would become the highest federal court in the country and the head of the judicial branch of the government, the Supreme court.

President George Washington signed the Judiciary Act of 1789 which specified that six justices would serve on the court and that they would continue to serve until they either retired or died. These first six justices would be John Jay, James Wilson, John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair Jr, and Robert Hanson Harrison. 

John Jay became the first chief justice, which is the highest judicial officer in the nation. There is a specific set of duties pertaining to the chief justice position including creating the agenda for the Supreme Court justices' meetings, chose who will write the court's opinion when the chief justice is apart of the majority opinion and presides over impeachment trials against the President of the United States.

All these men came from different backgrounds and locations, which resulted in the first meeting of the Supreme Court, originally scheduled for February 1, 1790, in New York City, to be pushed back a say to account for transportation and travel issues.

The first official meeting took place in the Merchants Exchange Building in New York City on February 2, 1790 - but there were no cases officially tried. Instead, the early meeting of the court was to figure out the organizational procedures and processes.

The first case heard by the Supreme Court was that of West V. Barnes on August 3, 1791. The case was unremarkable, but it was the first of many cases the court would try in the more than 100 years of its existence. Some of the most groundbreaking and landmark cases include:

• Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which ruled illegally collected evidence cannot be used in criminal cases
• Texas v. Johnson (1989), which found that the first amendment protects flag burning and other potentially offensive speech.
• Roe v. Wade (1973), which granted women the right to an abortion during the first two trimesters.
• U.S. v. Nixon (1974), which found that the President cannot use his or her power to withhold evidence in criminal trials
• The United States v. Windsor (2013), which revoked the U.S. government’s ability to deny federal benefits to same-sex couples
• Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage across all 50 states

Since April 2017, 113 justices have served on the Supreme Court, with the numbers of justices fluctuating at a given time. It was in 1869 the number of seats was limited to 9 and it has remained that way since.