The legal process typically begins in trial courts with state and federal and parties involved in this dispute, present their arguments and the trial court makes a judgment based on the facts. Then if a party is dissatisfied with the decision of the court, you will see it go to an appellate court. The appellate court may affirm, reverse or modify the trial court's decision, then a petition for a writ of an eye, I'm probably going to butcher how to say this here, a Tory parties who wish to have their case heard by the Supreme Court must file this petition. And the petition is basically a formal crisis Supreme Court review a lower court's decision remembering Supreme Court is the final arbiter, then it takes the rule of four, the Supreme Court employs the rule of four, which means that at least four of the nine justices must agree to grant the petition and hear the case. Their sessions begin in October and end in June. That's typically why we see all these massive decisions coming out at the end of June. Then there's the briefing and oral arguments phase. So they've had the rule of four, they've granted the petition, they are going to hear the briefing and oral arguments, both parties submit briefs, which are written legal arguments, then there is a date set, typically, like I said in the fall, and then you move towards, like I said June where the decision comes out. And the majority opinion is written by one of the justices outlining the courts reasoning and decision. And justices who disagree can also write a dissenting opinion. That's why you've seen over the last couple of weeks, the majority opinion and the dissent, and it's important that we see both of those sides. It's really important to note though that the Supreme Court receives countless petitions each year but it has a limited capacity and only hears a fraction of the cases brought before it. The process of case selection involves careful consideration of legal significance, what it could mean for addressing kind of where the country Is that? So I want to bring this home. I've given you the basis. I've given you some history some, some background, I've talked about how does a case get from the trial court up to the Supreme Court. But I also want to just raise kind of my own thoughts. I think that far too often we, in this is my opinion. So far too often, I think we are allowing the courts to make legal policy to make policy that impacts the country. And I think that both parties have sometimes missed the opportunity to really legislate on things they think are important, because it's too difficult. And I think that we cannot become reliant upon the courts fixing everything. Our power, is in electing members of Congress who believe in what we believe in will work across the aisle, will take our country forward. And we cannot allow it to become a country that waits for the Supreme Court to say everything. Now is the Supreme Court really important in protecting our our rights and freedoms? Absolutely. But we also need to have a legislative branch that is robust, that is doing things because parties have had control of the House, the Senate and the presidency, and have not done massive things and then said, Well, next time you put us in power, we're going to do it, we need to start seeing action. And so you know, there's going to be a lot of noise about the Supreme Court, allowing the noise, understanding the basis of the core, understanding the history, understanding how it gets there, understanding that it's only a fraction of the cases that actually get there. And knowing that our way of action is voting for people who will make better laws that don't have to get decided by the Supreme Court. You know, it's really important that we continue to legislate, but I also think that we have become so absolute, and our views that we need to recognize that the middle ground is somewhere there. And that the Supreme Court is, you know, people that get to pick who are on the Supreme Court or the presidents, you know, you think about how a Supreme Court justice, typically they fall in line, to some degree with the views of the person picking you think about, you know, I think it's important to realize that elections have consequences. I feel like that said, so many times what presidents do get to select if there is a death of Justice or a retirement, they get to pick who's on the court. Now, I would caution to say, let's not put a Republican or Democrat label on them. I think it's easy to want to do that. But each of them have their own kind of views, but they do fall in line with the people that pick them. And I think we can't forget that fact of the people that we select to be our president, are going to have a really critical role for a very long time because a Supreme Court justice is an appointment for life. They can choose to retire, they, you know, they don't choose to die. But that is a lifetime appointment. And so let's not forget that piece of the puzzle to have like, thinking about the issues that are important for presidency as we come up on 2024. Is the Supreme Court really important to you then vote for someone who you believe will put a justice that falls in line with your beliefs. And I hope that this episode kind of pulls the curtain a little bit back gives you some power and understanding what is actually the Supreme Court. Why do we have it? What is the history of it? And how can we continue to engage with this constitutional republic that we have in a really great way. And that is it for this week's episode. Thank you so much for joining along. I hope this little primer on the Supreme Court and some of my thoughts about the Supreme Court have been interesting. As always, like and subscribe. Make sure that when you subscribe, every Thursday you'll get another episode of the Oregon news podcast. Share with someone you know. Find me on Instagram at at Katherine Getty. And as always tune in next week to another episode of the your good news podcast.