History & Workings Of The Supreme Court

 

When learning about the history and the workings of the Supreme Court, I learned a was reminded of a few things such as what exactly the Supreme Court does. I didn't realize that the Supreme Court is sent about 7,000 petitions a year and that Supreme Court Justices receive these petitions for certiorari, also known as written arguments attempting to persuade that court that a lower court's ruling was incorrect. Although being a Supreme Court Justice is described as a very difficult unlikely job to attain, the job seems fun. 

Something that surprises me about the Supreme Court is how many petitions they receive a year. As previously stated, each year the Supreme Court receives about 7,000 petitions. Obviously, they can't get to them all and only get to a fraction of the petitions but I was surprised at how high the number of people seeking to receive a different answer from the Supreme Court than they did from a lower court is. The Supreme Court definitely

stays busy with these petitions received throughout the year as they strive to have all current cases returned with a decision by the end of the term in late June. Some cases may take months as different justices may have different views and justices may switch opinions before a decision is made. 

    The supreme court is so important to our country and our freedoms. The Supreme Court is made up of 9 justices which each have an equally influential say on how they believe a case should go. Justices get together and discussion each of their opinion on the case and discuss what the final decision of the case should be. If a case is taken to the supreme court, the supreme court's decision trumps those of other courts.  The supreme court keeps our nation the freest in the world and has been apart of our history with an effort to keep our country the freest in the world dating back to 1970.

    After watching the video of the supreme court. I've learned so much more about what the Supreme Court does and how they make the decision they make. I've gained a lot of respect for the Supreme Court and even think being a Supreme Court Justice although stressful, would be a pretty cool and enjoyable occupation. I realize the power the Supreme Court has and I understand how they use and distribute that power between 9 justices in an attempt to make decisions as best as they can.  

Privacy- My Reaction To The Ted Talks

 After watching the numerous Ted Talks on different ways our privacy has been breached online, I  am in a way shocked and feel a sense of violation. There are many different pros to technology, but there are also many different cons. We can find these in numerous different types of technology. 

    Amazon's Alexa, for example is helpful with things such as turning things on and off in your smart home through a convenient voice command, asking a handsfree question, and with many other little things, but at that cost comes the surveillance of what goes on in your home and more importantly, the violation of you right. Think about it like this, if your Alexa device is always listening, waiting for the moment you say Alexa!, then we can infer that Alexa must always be listening. The issue here is that it doesn't end with Alexa, instead it begins with things such as Alexa or even "Hey Siri".  These things have proven themselves useful but they have also proven to bring about unwanted or unknown surveillance. It's not that you should be afraid of Alexa listening to what goes on in your home, it's just the fact that anything that does happen within the privacy of your own home is no longer private if technology is involved and that can be a litt
le scary. 

    These issues with technology impact anyone that is involved with technology which is lots of people. It impacts me, and most likely you as well. Some are quick to say the government should be involved with this in order to protect their citizens. With this issue, I go back and forth on what the government should do in this issue. You could either get rid of your devices, or you could ask and rely on these companies who to include encryption. A company that does a good job with this is Apple. Apple actually does not have access to any of their customers imessages or facetime calls according to this ted talk. 

    I think our government could help us to start with not allowing these companies to collect anything off of any user without that users consent. Although a device such as Alexa can always be listening for "Alexa", all the data recorded in the process of the waiting and beyond waiting should be legally required to be deleted and if not, that company must deal with legal punishment. Or these companies can include an encryption such as Apple did making these technologies significantly more difficult for just anyone to hack. I think that this could be a good start to the government getting involved with such technologies for our good. 

  However, if the government is not willing to get involved in order to protect their citizens, we can do a few things ourselves to help protect ourselves a little more. We can use the secure communication tools on our devices such as imessage, facetime, and whatsapp to safely and privately communicate with others. 

My 5 Favorite News Sources

    Where you find your news is very important. It is also equally important that your news is not gathered from one source alone, but rather gathered from multiple sources. I find my news from 5 different sources.

    The source I get my news from most often, often without the pursuit of finding news, is TikTok. TikTok is one of my main sources of news because of its convenience of providing not only news but a source of entertainment. I find myself checking TikTok everyday, numerous times a day. There have been many times I have been on TikTok in the pursuit of entertainment and have rather gained knowledge on major things going on that I previously didn't know about. From there, I can do further research in other news outlets. Another reason I think TikTok serves as a good news outlet is because a lot of what you find on TikTok can be trusted as authentic such as interviews, phone call recordings, and other first-hand pieces of evidence. You should use TikTok as one of your news sources because you can find out not only what is going on but, also use TikTok as a source of entertainment. 

    The next source I get my news from is WXII-12. I get my news from WXII-12 because this is the local news network of the area in which I am from. WXII-12 serves as a source for many things including but not limited to weather, traffic, and breaking news. Just as most local news stations would, WXII-12 covers what's happening in my area, and also when big things occur further than my area such as in the state or in the country, those things are covered as well. I recommend WXII-12 if you are from my area or I recommend your local news station as a way to keep up with what is going on where you are or where you are from. It's a good way to stay in the local know. 

    Another source I get my news from is twitter. While twitter is open to anyone to say anything, there are users on twitter such as reports who follow stories and give extremely fast updates. For example, when the major crime events occur and the country is following the story, I can turn on post notifications for crime reporters and each time they post with an update, I am aware and can read it instantly. I really like twitter for this reason, the quickness. Although twitter shouldn't be relied on as an only source of information, it's a good one to check if you are looking for the quickest updates which you can double check behind later. 

    Apple News happens to be another source of news I intake. Part of this reason being that it was built into my phone and I occasionally and conveniently receive notifications on my homescreen. Apple News just serves as yet another convenient news source. It's already installed and loaded on to my phone. I don't even remember opening the app except for maybe once a few years ago yet I have received notifications from the app and occasionally the header will catch my eye and I give it a quick read. I would recommend Apple News, especially to iphone users who want a quick way to find out what's going on. You simply open the app and are greeted with the date and the "top stories". What's cool about Apple News is that it is essentially just a hub of news from a variety of different sources including . Apple news also offers a variety of news, as well as magazines and newspapers. 

    And finally, another news source I check is ESPN. I check ESPN for all my sports inquires. I even once again receive notifications from the ESPN app on my phone giving me quick updates on teams scores and any major things that could be happening during the game. I recommend ESPN for those into sports as ESPN covers basically any sport and can tell you practically anything about any sport or any team such as stats, players, and more. You can even playback important clips of games. I think of ESPN as a sport central which really comes in handy if you don't have the time to sit and watch a game yourself. 

   Self-reflecting about my top 5 news sources, I realize I gain all my news from my phone, and especially through notifications. Realizing this does not surprise me. As a busy student, it can be hard to keep up with everything you are doing and keep track of the news on top of that. The convenience of news on my phone and especially through notifications which for the most part can be read and taken in in a glance, makes keeping up with news so much easier.