What role does the Supreme Court play in the American Political System?

The first 200 words of this essay...

What role does the Supreme Court play in the American Political System?

Perhaps it is no surprise that the country which contains more than half of the lawyers in the world also contains the most powerful court in the world : the Supreme Court. As the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court plays a major role in American political life, acting as the final court of appeal and the final arbiter of the ambiguities of the Constitution, giving it the power to overturn any law passed by any legislature in the country if it is deemed to be "unconstitutional". It would be wrong, however, to see the Court as simply ruling laws as "unconstitutional" or not, for its judgements on cases it has heard have had far-reaching effects on many Americans.

The Supreme Court was brought into being by Article 3, Section 1 of the Constitution, "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". The Supreme Court was originally set up as part of the separation of powers in the American political system,