Blog Post #2

 The Supreme Court

Something I never knew about the supreme court was that Sandra Day O'Conner was the first female to serve on the Supreme Court, this was fascinating to me because she leads many more famous females to be a part of the Supreme Court, most famously Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was sworn into the supreme court back in 1981. 

History about Supreme Court

A takeaway I learned while watching the video on the Supreme Court is that they are kinda like the goalkeepers of the justice system. What I mean by that is that they are the last court and dictate the final answer of a case, kinda like how goalkeepers are the last line of defense for soccer teams. 

A thing that surprised me is how powerful the supreme court really is, this controls what a law means and how it will work for the generation to come. An example of this would be the Dred Scott case. The outcome was the slaves were property and property were not legal citizens. Since they were citizens they were not allowed to sue.

Another thing I did not know about the supreme court was how difficult their jobs are and how much time they put into their job. The judges look at 7,000 cases a year and pick 100-150 cases per year. The cases involve different petitions from people who think their court cases were dictated wrong and want to appeal to a higher court. These judges put in hours of work weekly to look over cases and have full offices of staff to help them work out cases and to find what laws are correct for the case.

Blog Post #3

 Check on Governmental Power (aka Watchdog Role)

    In today's world no one feels like they can trust their government, everyone feels like their government is either hiding something from them or just straight up lying to them. This fact is made true by some of the different government/presidential scandals that have happened throughout America's history. Check on governmental power also known as the checks and balances, this part of the constitution that basically says the three branches cannot overpower the other branches.

    Check on governmental power is important to free speech because it gives the people the chance to make sure their government stays in line and does not go crazy with power. An example of the check on governmental power working would be the watergate scandal. The scandal was President Nixon was up for re-election and he did not know whether he would win or not due to the Vietnam war, the country was divided because half people did not want to war (mainly Democrats) and the other half wanted it (Republicans). The Watergate scandal was that President Nixon sent burglars into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. The burglars were sent in there to tap the phone lines and find secret documents that could help him win the election, they were found out because the tap did not work the first time and they ended up getting caught trying to break in again to fix it. Nixon ended up resigning because people found out that he was trying to cover it up and lie about it. This example shows how well the check on governmental power works for the people of America. The people were able to find out the things the government was doing and held him accountable for his actions. 

More about the WaterGate Scandal

I think Vincent Blasi puts it best with this quote, "in the last decade, the First Amendment has had at least as much impact on American life by facilitating a process by which countervailing forces check the misuse of official power as by protecting the dignity or the individual, maintaining a diverse society in the face of conformist pressures, promoting the quest for scientific and philosophic truth, or fostering a regime of "self-government" in which large numbers of ordinary citizens take an active part in political affairs." (Blasi, pg 527). This quote to me means that normal everyday people can stand up for themselves and can speak up against the issue they have with the government without being persecuted like many other countries do when someone tries to speak out against the government. The other meaning I get from this quote is that the individual has a voice and that it is okay for them to be different from the norms. 

Blasi on Government Power

Blog Post #1

In today's world, the web is used for many different things, the main one being the spread of information. The web makes it easier than ever to find the answer to your questions but there is a lot of fake information that is sent around. Here are some of my favorite websites that I get my information from that I trust:

Instagram: Instagram is a good platform for news because it is easy to find accounts that post real news. the difference between Instagram and regular newspapers is that the user can follow accounts they like, meaning the user can find categories they enjoy instead of having to sift through hundreds of articles of subjects they do not really care about.  

Instagram

Washington Post: This is a very forward-thinking news outlet that is for the people, this is the same newspaper that took down Richard Nixon and in the Watergate scandal. They have been a top-three newspaper in America and there is a reason for that, it is because they are trustworthy. 

Washington Post

Family and Friends: A majority of the news I learn day today comes from my family and friends. first of my parents watch the news every day and my mom likes to talk so I get to learn all the news and gossip that day. Through social media my friends will send news about subjects we like, most of this comes from either Instagram or Snapchat. 

Podcasts: I enjoy music and most importantly the deep dive into different artists' lyrics, I listen to Dissect by Cole Cucina. In this series he takes a deep dive into music, I just finished his series on Childish Gambino's "Because of the Internet". Another Podcast I watch is All the Smoke hosted by past NBA stars Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson who go over everything that has happened in the past week within sports or major events in the media. 

TV News Stations: My house back home my parents are always watching the news so in the morning I always get the news and late at night. The main one they watch is FOX 5 so I get my news from them and kinda learn my perspective from them. 

Fox News