The Court of Last Resort

The US Supreme Court had been engrained in the Constitution since the beginning. This important branch is an essential component of the checks and balances system thats been helping the US operate since the very beginning in 1789, making sure no one appendage gains more power and control over the others. 

The Supreme Court started out consisting of 6 judges, a Chief Justice and five Associative Justices, and has grown to the 9 Justices on the court in 1869 which stands today. The Supreme Court is also slightly above the legislative and executive branches of our government, in that it has the power to tell the others "no, your actions are unconstitutional and cannot be performed." The US Supreme Court has also been deemed the "court of last resort" since cases almost always start out at state or lower level federal courts before moving up in the judicial branch to the Supreme Court. 

The workings of the Supreme Court today are just as prominent as they have been, receiving approximately 10,00 petitions a year but only addressing 75-85 cases per year or around 1% of cases submitted. The Justices usually take on cases that set precedents for future cases in the US, as well as cases that address the country as a whole instead of a few individuals. The goal from the results of these cases is to answer any questions about federal and constitutional law, as well as any with a large constitutional impact. Once the court reaches a decision, it can only be turned over by the court itself. 

An exception of this policy would be concerning racial segregation in the case of Brown v. Board of Education being deemed unconstitutional in 1954, after the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 which deemed racial segregation as constitutional as long as facilities were "separate but equal" in quality. This case became a landmark case in the history of the Supreme Court since in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, a violation of the Equal Protection clause in the 14th amendment was found, ultimately leading to the desegregation of schools.