day@SCOTUS

I am awed by my visit to the US Supreme Court to attend a hearing this week.

When the opportunity presented itself a couple of months ago, I circled the date and hoped against hope that the calendar would not melt on me .... justice prevailed and the Gods were good!

Preparation

My boss, who is a political science major, had mentioned the seminal case of Marbury v. Madison many moons ago as the one case everyone needs to know about.  I had tucked it away in the back of my mind.  So when this opportunity to go to the SCOTUS presented itself, I read up not only on the two cases being heard that day, but also finished up a book on Marbury v. Madison.

Marbury v. Madison was ruled in 1803 by Justice John Marshall which for the first time (and ever since), established the Supreme Court as a co-equal branch of government to the Executive and Legislative branches.  Indeed, the seminal quote by the Chief Justice in that ruling is etched in stone at the Supreme Court: "It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is."

The Court and Justices

In the courtroom, there is a high rise bench behind which the nine justices sit.  The Chief Justice sits in the center.  And the most junior justice to the most senior justice sit from the outside in on either side of the Chief Justice.  So in this session that I attended, facing us, Justice Gorsuch was the to the extreme right (ha!) and Justice Kagan was to the extreme left.  Chief Justice Roberts was flanked by Justice Thomas to the right and Justice Kennedy to his left.

Some observations on personalities of the Justices:

Chief Justice Roberts kept the proceedings in order.

Neither Justices Thomas or Kennedy spoke a word.  In fact, Justice Thomas was leaning so far back on his chair I was half afraid he would topple over!

Justice Breyer was animated and philosophical. One of his questions was so long and ended with a reference to Plato and Aristotle, that the counsel confessed she did not understand what his question was in the first place!

Justice RBG was full for vim and vigor.

I was personally most impressed by Justice Gorsuch.  He was sharp, concise, courteous and witty.  I may not agree with him on where he is on the political spectrum  - but I greatly admire the 'supreme' talent we have on the court with him.

The cases

The Supreme Court accepts only about 1% of the petitions it receives each year.  i.e about 70 cases from the approximately 7,000 petitions it receives.

I was in the company of several distinguished colleagues and I was advised that the Supreme Court handles only one question - Is the matter at hand constitutional?

The two cases that were being handled that day were death penalty cases.

Pin drop silence prevailed.

In the first case, which was from Texas, the question was whether the plaintiff who was on death row had "substantial need" for legal representation and whether those needs were "reasonably necessary."

The legal counsel on either side of the case had half an hour each.  The entire hour was spent, it seemed to me on these two phrases:  substantial need vs reasonably necessary.

It is fair to say that the two counsels were grilled to the max from start to finish for the entire hour.

The second case was from Georgia.  In this instance the discussion was whether a precedent that the lower court adopted was acceptable.  The entire second hour was spent on debating the merits of what was called a "look through" - i.e. was precedent acceptable in the ruling of the lower court.

Once again both counsels were grilled to the max.

The Justices and the Counsels spoke extreme legalese.  Yet I found myself able to track the discussion perfectly fine.  The vigor of the cut and thrust of the discussion had us in rapt attention for the two hours.

Post Hearing

After the hearing, we had a chance to visit the Senate Dining room and got a private tour of the Senate Chamber.

While we were dining, I heard a very familiar voice at my back.  I resisted the urge to turnaround and kept my eyes at my table and on my plate.  My colleagues confirmed it was indeed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Summary

I have been to a Presidential Inauguration and I have been to Congressional meetings.  I can say that a visit to the the Supreme Court and observing their proceedings is awe-inspiring and something I wish everyone would have a chance to do!