Title: Judicial Decision-Making and Implementation by the Supreme Court | American Government
Headings: Judicial Decision-Making and Implementation by the Supreme Court
Judicial Decision-Making and Implementation by the Supreme Court
Learning Objectives
Judicial Opinions
Influences on the Court
The Importance of Jury Duty
The Courts and the Other Branches of Government
Summary
Practice Questions

Content: Judicial Decision-Making and Implementation by the Supreme Court | American Government
Judicial Decision-Making and Implementation by the Supreme Court
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to: Describe how the Supreme Court decides cases and issues opinions
Identify the various influences on the Supreme Court
Explain how the judiciary is checked by the other branches of government
The courts are the least covered and least publicly known of the three branches of government. The inner workings of the Supreme Court and its day-to-day operations certainly do not get as much public attention as its rulings, and only a very small number of its announced decisions are enthusiastically discussed and debated. The Court’s 2015 decision on same-sex marriage was the exception, not the rule, since most court opinions are filed away quietly in the United States Reports, sought out mostly by judges, lawyers, researchers, and others with a particular interest in reading or studying them. Thus, we sometimes envision the justices formally robed and cloistered away in their chambers, unaffected by the world around them, but the reality is that they are not that isolated, and a number of outside factors influence their decisions. Though they lack their own mechanism for enforcement of their rulings and their power remains checked and balanced by the other branches, the effect of the justices’ opinions on the workings of government, politics, and society in the United States is much more significant than the attention they attract might indicate. Judicial Opinions
Every Court opinion sets precedent for the future. The Supreme Court ’s decisions are not always unanimous, however; the published majority opinion, or explanation of the justices’ decision, is the one with which a majority of the nine justices agree. It can represent a vote as narrow as five in favor to four against.