Supreme Court Video: 

I've always thought the Supreme Court was the most interesting branch of government. It may have been the procedure, it may have been the prestige, but it was likely more the mystery. To have a governmental body that is fairly stagnant and detached from the public, yet with such far reaching power stirs a sense of fascination in the public sphere. I think the video said it best: the court's power rests in public faith, their independence, and impartiality; their legitimacy in the constitution. 

The court has no authority other than what has been built through legacy. The Marbury V. Madison case of 1803 gave the court the majority of its power. Previously, the court had very little guidance from the Constitution regarding what their role was. Chief Justice John Marshall's pivotal opinion, establishing judicial review, is what made the court what it is today: 

"It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is" -John Marshall, Marbury V. Madison (1803)

What is amazing about this branch of government is that it is essentially self-made. Without this case, and the subsequent cases that followed, the court would have never established its authority and created precedence. It is through these precedencies that gives the court their power through public faith, independence, and impartiality. 

The court's authority has been tested though. The 1857 case Dred Scott V. Missouri ruled that the court had no power to ban slavery. This case, and the Plessy V. Ferguson (1896) case undermined the court's authority for years because it isolated a large majority of the population: the abolitionist, anti-slavery movement. When the Reconstruction amendments were passed post Civil War, the nuance of the slavery issue was put to rest once and for all. However, the court's interpretation of the new Constitution would be tested through the next century and the Civil Rights era. 

Something Associate Justice Kennedy said in this video really stuck out to me. He said, "We have 200 years of detachment". Today's courts have an easier job than the court of John Marshall. They can look back at what the courts have interpreted in the past and choose to implement stare decisis or not. These decisions that overturn precedence are landmark for a reason, and the amendments that may or may not follow influence political discourse for decades. The far reaching, long lasting power of the Supreme Court to check the other branches of government and interpret a 200 year old document is what makes it the most powerful branch of government in my eyes. However, with this power comes great responsibility to the laws of our nation. 

I would not say that this video drastically changed my views on the Supreme Court, but it did give me a better understanding of the procedure and lift some of the mystique. I would say that it strengthened my views though. It reminded me of the great weight of responsibility the court has and we have as Americans to make sure the most powerful court in the world stays impartial and un-influenced by outside forces. Our democracy depends too much upon it.