Supreme Court Decisions Impact High School Students, Too

The Supreme Court has an important role in our constitutional system of government.

By Lindsey Bates, News Reporter

Article III of the U.S. Constitution establishes the federal judiciary, part of which establishes the Supreme Court. Article III, Section I states,

“The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Even though the Constitution states that the Supreme Court is to exist and function as the top court, it still permits the Congress to decide how to organize it. Over the years, various Acts of Congress have altered the number of seats on the Supreme Court, from a low of five to a high of ten.

Today, there is one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court. Article III, Section II of the Constitution establishes the jurisdiction (legal ability to hear a case) of the Supreme Court.

Decisions that the Supreme Court make do not only affect and impact judges and lawyers, but everyone in the U.S. and the laws they are required to follow. But the decisions impact people like highschool students as well.

Several landmark cases decided by the Court have involved students, such as 1969’s Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District. The Court ultimately held that students could not be punished for wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court Majority favoring the students stated that students and teachers shouldn’t have to,

“shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

These words, ‘EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW’ were written above the main entrance of the Supreme Court Building. The Supreme Court consists of the Chief of Justice of the United States, and such a number of Associate Justices fixed by the Congress. The number of Associate Justices is currently fixed at eight. Court officers also assist in the performance of the Court. The Supreme Court first assembly was in 1790, and the Court,

“...bears it’s closest resemblance of its original form, a 225 year old legacy,” as the US Supreme Court Website states.

If the chief justice is absent from court, the most senior justice becomes acting chief justice. The chief justice also supervises the compilation and presentation of the judicial budget to the Legislature. The chief justice also presides over the Court's public sessions and conducts the Court's private conferences, where the justices decide what cases to hear and how to vote on the cases they have heard.

Of all courts, The Supreme Court holds the most influence over public policy and how it is interpreted courts in the U.S., and is meant to be the check on both current laws and the lower courts.