On The Media: Life Experience of the Justices

Physical: They talk about how Justices are portrayed in films, and other fictitious media outlets. The media often makes legal issues seem extremely dramatic. Elements are added into these forms of media to make the world of the supreme court, and other legal segments extremely interesting, and involved. The fact that, in these shows and movies, we see the intimate lives of the characters, creates the understanding that maybe it would be important to understand the views, and lifestyle choices of the Justices.

Psychological: Media depictions of the Justices help us to understand the shut-off, and seemingly secretive world of the Supreme Court. Supreme court Justices have a huge impact on what goes on in our society, so their views, beliefs, and actions should matter to us as citizens of the country.

Temporal: As time progresses, more and more questions arise about the government, and this is another form of that. People are beginning to understand that it is important to consider life experience, along with views and beliefs when appointing Justices to the Court.

Cultural: The legal world isn’t one that society necessarily identifies as interesting. There are several court room related television shows that are extremely popular. We place an extreme importance on life experience, so it makes sense that we would care about understanding not only the legal knowledge that the Justices have, but also the life experience that they have obtained.

I think that it is important for us to understand that Judges are human. Their lives, and their views and beliefs have the ability to change on the daily, just like ours do. It’s also important for them to understand the responsibility that they have to the country to make fair judgments. To be really honest, I’ve not thought about this topic before, but I agree that it’s important to understand, and consider the life experience that any person who enters the political/legal world has before they are appointed. Life experience is what we take our views and beliefs from.