The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court and all other courts in the United States make up the judicial branch. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. This means that no other court in the United States can overturn its judgments.

It is the Supreme Court's job to explain laws and make sure that laws agree with the Constitution. The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. Its laws tell about people's rights and how the government must work.

Nine justices, or judges, make up the Supreme Court. The President appoints justices to the court with the consent of the Senate. Supreme Court justices can serve until they retire or die. Justices can also be impeached, or removed from office for committing a crime, but this has never happened.

Eight associate justices and one chief justice serve on the Supreme Court. The chief justice is the leader of the court and has other duties within the court system. The associate justices on the current Supreme Court are: John P. Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas and Stephen G. Breyer. William H. Rehnquist is the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Each year, the Supreme Court receives thousands of cases for review. A case is a lawsuit. The court does not hear all the cases it receives. It chooses the cases that have the most important legal and constitutional importance.

The justices hear cases in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.. No witnesses and no jury are present when the justices hear the cases. After the lawyers for each side speak before the court, the justices discuss a case in private.

Each of the justices votes on a case. Five or more of the justices must agree for the ruling to become the Court's decision. If the chief justice agrees with the majority, he or she writes an opinion or asks another justice to write it. If the chief justice is not in the majority, the senior justice in the majority writes the opinion or has another justice write it. This "opinion of the court" explains why the court made the decision.

Not all of the justices agree on the cases they hear. If a justice does not agree with a ruling, he or she will write a dissenting opinion that tells why the justice disagrees. At the same time, justices who agree with a ruling are free to write a concurring opinion that tells why the justice agrees.

Supreme Court rulings affect all of the other courts in the United States. All other courts must rule the same way as the Supreme Court does on cases that are similar.