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Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives. - Demystified Videos
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Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!
The Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C. is the highest court in the nation. It is also the only federal court named specifically in the Constitution, which states that,
“The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court.”
Beyond that, however, the Constitution tells us little about the make-up or organization of the court; it gives no qualifications for holding seats on the court, and doesn’t establish how many justices will be on the court.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 set the size of the court at six; one Chief Justice and five Associate Justices. Over time, the court grew to as large as ten Justices. With the Judiciary Act of 1869, Congress decreased the number to nine, a number which has remained constant to this day.
Current Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court
Chief Justice of the United States:- John G. Roberts, Jr.
- Clarence Thomas
- Samuel A. Alito, Jr.
- Sonia Sotomayor
- Elena Kagan
- Neil M. Gorsuch
- Brett M. Kavanaugh
- Amy Coney Barrett
- Ketanji Brown Jackson
- Sandra Day O’Connor
- Anthony M. Kennedy
- David H. Souter
- Stephen G. Breyer
Read the biographies of the current Justices by visiting the website of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Learn More About the U.S. Supreme Court
Granting Certiorari
The Supreme Court receives about 10,000 petitions a year. The Justices use the "Rule of Four” to decide if they will take the case. If four of the nine Justices feel the case has value, they will issue a writ of certiorari. This is a legal order from the high court for the lower court to send the records of the case to them for review. When all is said and done the Supreme Court will hear about 75-85 cases a year. This tells us that most petitions are denied.
The majority of the Supreme Court’s cases today are heard on appeal from the lower courts. These cases usually come from the federal courts of appeal, but the Court does sometimes hear appeals from the state Supreme Courts as well.
The Justices of the Supreme Court are most likely to take cases that will affect the entire country, not just the individuals involved. They want to clarify legal issues that are important to as many people as possible, so they take cases that will have a large constitutional impact, or that answer important legal questions that affect the whole nation.
Examples include questions like;
"Can kids pray in school?"
"Can you burn a flag at an anti-government rally?"
Justices will also take a case when the lower courts cannot agree on how to interpret the law involved, or in which different lower courts have interpreted the law differently. When the lower courts decide cases differently, it can lead to confusion.
As the “court of last resort,” the Supreme Court can and does make decisions that all the courts must follow. This is called establishing a precedent; a legal example which will be followed in all similar cases in the future.
By taking a case that involves an issue that has led to differing opinions in the lower courts, the Supreme Court creates a precedent that every court in the country has to follow. This guarantees that the laws are applied equally to all people, no matter where they live.
The Supreme Court only takes cases from state courts when the appeal involves the U.S. Constitution. Thus, the person making the appeal must show that his or her rights, under the Bill of Rights, were denied by the state, or that some error was made in the court that affected their due process rights. Because of these restrictions, most of the Supreme Court’s cases come from the lower federal courts and not from state courts.
The U.S. Supreme Court
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