My Ruling on the Supreme Court

 

The United States Supreme Court, gracing themselves with the namesake of "the highest judicial body on earth" whose job is to "safeguard American Liberty" has been a body who is all but humble in the immense power in which it holds. This ultimate authority over human nature in our country being granted to nine old (typically male and even more typically white) people has flaws inherent for anyone willing to question American conventions to spot from a mile, or oceans away. 

In the video, Justice David H. Souter makes an offhanded remark when asked about the severity of this position, saying "you do the most work when you forget that you're here." Is it valid to allow the severity of your position to fall into normalcy solely because of time? Sure, jobs which sound intriguing to the hopeful applicant can reveal themselves as ultimately a dichotomy of minutia and lunch breaks, but when the decisions made on your typical work day effect the lives of the money and set the precedent for how situations should be handled is it defensible to shrug your way into the courtroom, 10 minutes late with an expresso just as you would to the office?

Maybe I'm being too critical, maybe mundanity is inevitable regardless of career path. As I watched the documentary, there was one other sentiment which truly stuck out to me. Drew S Days III, former Solicitor General of the US details just how important and truly awesome the power of the role of judge is, giving. your argument to nine willing and able sets of ears ready to debate and differ against your ideas. The judges themselves going on a tangent about just how powerful the aural arguments are, how strength and intrigue in a lawyer's diction when presenting the case can make or break the ruling. If nothing else,  the courts provide yet another example of the fortitude of the written word. And yet, Days' most interesting point was how, once your argument has started, how casual it feels. "It's just you have a conversation with nine people, everyone has the common goal of doing whats right." 

His idea leaves an interesting discovery, that maybe great power and great responsibility don't have to always feel so immense, that just maybe casually accepting the severity of the role of a Supreme Court judge isn't the wrong- however exactly right reaction. Sure, you're garnering the responsibility of a nation, but that nation is just comprised of people, individuals all looking to live life for the same pursuits: life, liberty and happiness.