I had the opportunity to sit in on Dr. John Domino's great lecture on the Supreme Court this past Thursday and picked up some good insight on the subject. Going into the lecture I really had never perceived the Supreme Court as an evolving body in itself. It had always been portrayed to me as a group of justices who had the final say in a court case, but Dr. Domino views the Supreme Court in a different light. He talked about the way there have been three major "evolution" periods that have taken place that deal with different aspects of America. The first period was in America's birth as a nation which dealt with mainly the supremacy of the constitution and state matters. The second period took a long time to get to, but in the 1920's-1930's we began to notice a shift in the content in which the Supreme Court dealt with. They started to regulate business, and deal with Civil Rights and Civil Liberties more. Their role in society started taking a new and larger shape. Finally the third stage (1937-present) really hones in on issues that we have never before dealt with. They are having to dissect the Bill of Rights and interpret what our forefathers (might have) meant when they put this government together. In addition they are more active than ever in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties cases, in an effort to make equality something that every American can enjoy. I was pretty shocked when I realized that our Justices have taken such a large responsibility when (I speak for myself here) life in America is taken for granted in the most extreme ways. Its good to know that someone is watching out for our well-being, so hats off to those awesome Supreme Court Justices, they have a tough job and they may have differing opinions from me at times but I have a new found respect for what they do.
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