With the Supreme Court ending its 2007-08 term final week, we idea now was a expert time to reply some questions you probably weren't asking (but will nonetheless find interesting). The honorable David Holzel is presiding.

Why are at that place 9 Supremes?
There don't take to be—the Constitution doesn't specify—and there weren't always. The Federal Judiciary Act called for a chief justice and five acquaintance justices. And the Courtroom didn't settle into the current lineup of 8 assembly and a principal until the belatedly 1860s.

A sixth associate was added in 1807, a 7th and eighth in 1837, and a ninth in 1863. Congress sought to restructure the Court during the contentious administration of Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln's controversial successor. A police force passed in 1866 chosen for a decrease in the number of associate justices from nine to six through the procedure of attrition. Vii associates still remained on the bench in 1869, when a constabulary was passed to increase the number dorsum to eight. By that time President Ulysses South. Grant had taken office.

That's how things stood until 1935, when a largely conservative Court unanimously overturned iii of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal provisions. Roosevelt was reelected by a landslide the adjacent year. So in 1937, he invested his political uppercase in making the court more liberal and, presumably, more than enthusiastic well-nigh the New Deal.

Roosevelt proposed the "Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937" -- known always since as "the Court-packing scheme." The Supreme Court would add one justice for every sitting justice over age 70. Roosevelt argued that the Courtroom, with its 6 septuagenarians, wasn't up to the job. (In the electric current Court, six justices volition be at least lxx past the end of 2008.)

The plan acquired an uproar, even amidst Roosevelt'southward allies and, with the president refusing to give in, eventually died in Congress.

Is in that location a Jewish seat? An African-American seat?
The story goes that when Louis D. Brandeis sat on the Court, a fellow justice refused to sit in the aforementioned room with him. Brandeis was the Court's beginning Jewish justice, nominated by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. From that time, until Justice Abe Fortas resigned from the bench in 1969, presidents always made sure there was at least one Jewish justice.

Similarly, later on the retirement in 1991 of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice, President George H.Due west. Bush-league nominated another African American to fill up his seat—albeit the more than conservative Clarence Thomas.

One reason President George W. Bush-league nominated Harriet Meiers was to take a adult female succeed the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor, says Barbara A. Perry, professor of government at Sweet Briar College, in Virginia. Perry, writer of A "Representative" Supreme Court? The Touch on of Race, Faith, and Gender on Appointments, tells mental_floss that since the time of George Washington, presidents have sought "balancing representation" in their nominations.

"It was geographical balance then," Perry says. "Later, religious seats adult." And more than recently, a seat for a adult female and an African-American. To extend representation, "Bush-league actually wanted to make Alberto Gonzales the first Hispanic justice." (Gonzales resigned as attorney general over the firings of federal prosecutors.)

"Simply in one case a group enters the mainstream, presidents experience less compelled to attain out to them. The other way you know is if members of a group make full multiple seats." In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated William Brennan, to ensure a Roman Catholic on the Courtroom; today, of ix justices, seven are Catholics, including the chief justice. Some other two are Jews.

Why is in that location a Supreme Court, anyhow?
First, because the United States Constitution says so. Commodity III called for Congress to create a Supreme Court. Merely that doesn't entirely answer the question. The framers of the Constitution considered the lack of a high court as one of the master weaknesses of the Manufactures of Confederation, which the Constitution was intended to replace.

"All nations accept constitute it necessary to establish one courtroom paramount to the residual, possessing a general superintendence, and authorized to settle and declare in the last resort a uniform dominion of ceremonious justice," Alexander Hamilton argued in support of a courtroom that would exist a co-equal branch of government with Congress and the presidency.

Different the express terms assigned to officers of the other branches of regime, Article 3 says the members of the Supreme Courtroom "shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour"—essentially until they resign or die. It describes the Court'south jurisdiction extending to "all Cases, in Constabulary and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the The states, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, nether their Authority."

It took the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 to bring the Supreme Court and federal commune courts into being. The Courtroom's first session opened on Feb. two, 1790, but the justices heard no arguments during their first three sessions. The Court didn't upshot its first major decision until 1793 when, in Chisholm five. Georgia, it ruled the country of Georgia was not immune to a lawsuit from a citizen of another state. That determination was overturned by the 11th Amendment, ratified in 1795.

During their long periods of downwardly time, the early justices were occupied with riding the muddy roads of the state, settling cases as circuit judges. Sitting on a circuit court is however role of a justice's job clarification.

How does the Supreme Court enforce its decisions?
On its own, it can't. With no army to dorsum information technology upwards and dour expressions non being enough to ensure compliance, the Court must rely on the executive branch for support.

This was a big selling point when the Constitution was being shopped around in 1787. The judiciary, Alexander Hamilton wrote, "has no influence over either the sword or the handbag"¦. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor Will, but only judgment." The Courtroom, Hamilton said, would be "the to the lowest degree unsafe" branch of government.

denny-crane-bobblehead.jpg Oyez? Oh yeah? Oy Vey!
Denny Crane: It's our time, in The Swell Hall, in front of the highest court in the country. Perhaps the world. Be respectful, but kick ass. Be Alan Shore for all you're worth. And you lot know how they beginning these sessions? This clerk, this really pretty woman, she says, "Oh yes. Oh yes! Oh aye!" Information technology's like sex activity, Alan!
Alan Shore: It'due south non, "Oh yes." Information technology's, "Oyez."
Denny Crane: What?
Alan Shore: Oyez.
-- Boston Legal, "The Court Supreme"

There seem to be several ways to pronounce the archaic "oyez"—roughly meaning, "Hear ye!" After giving this call for silence, the align of the court announces: "All persons having business before the honorable, the Supreme Court of the United states, are admonished to draw near and give their attending, for the court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable court."

By police force, the Supreme Court volition begin its next term the first Monday in Oct.

Monday: What was Marbury 5. Madison? And who were Roe & Wade? Tuesday: viii Rejected Supreme Court Justices.

David Holzel is a freelance writer and has never said the discussion "oyez" out loud. He writes the ezine The Jewish Angle.
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