The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” So begins Article III of the United States Constitution. This simple sentence provides the authorization for the entire structure of the federal judiciary. The Supreme Court, unique, prestigious, but controversial, is the crown of the system. Beyond question it is the best-known and most powerful judicial body in the world. Designed chiefly as a court to settle arguments between the states, matters involving foreign ambassadors, and other quarrels beyond the scope of state courts, it has from the time of John Marshall to that of Earl Warren added to its power by slow accretion, until today its influence is felt in every aspect of American life. Troops deploy, governmental agencies and great corporations dissolve, little children march past jeering mobs to school, because nine black-robed justices in Washington have discovered new meanings in an old and hallowed document.
Our Constitution has endured over the years because of its flexibility. The Founding Fathers knew better than to pin down their descendants too closely. Enduring principles rather than petty details were what they sought to establish in the long days of drafting at the Philadelphia convention. Moreover, they anticipated the need for future growth. They provided an orderly process for amending the Constitution, and they provided a Supreme Court to modify it when necessary by interpretation. But they did not expect that the Court would have so much to do with the growth and evolution of their handiwork—more, perhaps, than all the amendments taken together.
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