1. BELLWORK
Please take your Iron Heel quiz in silence. After you are done, you may read or work on other work in silence until everyone else has finished.

2. PLANNER: Tonight’s Homework
Tonight, I would like you to print out an article about an interesting Supreme Court case to bring into class tomorrow. Please note that this MUST be a SUPREME COURT case, not a lower court case. If you need help researching, come see me during office hours.

3. The Judicial Branch

4. The Judicial Branch- The Supreme Court
The highest court for the US is the Supreme Court
Established under Article 3 of the Constitution
Number of elected officials and judges is determined by Congress
What is the number of elected Supreme Court judges right now? 9

6. Judges
Since Supreme Court justices are not elected, they do not have as much political pressure or pull when deciding the verdict on a case
Instead, Supreme Court justices remain in their positions until they can no longer do their job or are impeached by Congress
They are the final judicial decision on a case-- why most of their cases are in the “appeal” category
What is an “appeal”?

7. Appellate Court
To appeal is to say that one believes the final decision in a lower court was not fair-- therefore, the trial is put back to court at higher stakes
If a case makes it all the way to Supreme Court, there is usually a huge decision at risk to be made
Can we recall some examples from last week or other Supreme Court cases we know?
For the Supreme Court, decisions made usually challenge the fundamentals of law and judges must interpret the law

8. How Does it Work? Lower courts must follow the Supreme Court’s ruling
The Supreme Court does not hold trials-- instead, it takes time to deliberate and interpret law to come to a decision
The Court determines which cases are important enough to interpret
Writ of Certiorari-- the request made for the Supreme Court’s interpretation of law
Grant cert-- the approval of the hearing of a specific case

9. 7,500 writs of certiorari are issued every year.

10. Only 150 are actually chosen by the Court to be grant cert!

11. All the Missing Cases
Imagine how many cases are never chosen to be heard
What kinds of cases do you think we might be missing out on?
Talk at your tables

12. Tonight Look up a Supreme Court case and print it out
Make notes and annotations-- what is interesting about this case?
Be prepared to work at your tables

13. Next Class We will start talking about the Civics Test!
More Supreme Court Notes
Talking about our cases