Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

so what you're saying is you'd rather not have ANY idea as any kind of descriptor to an individual? That happens all the times, heck it even happens with pitching movies... "It's kind of like Die Hard, but on a ship." "Well, it's like Purple Rain, but with rap music." People are not able to digest long diatribes and making absolute sense out of them. Labels work to some degree.

Let's go back to Civics class. I didn't get one until sophomore year in HS, but it's really as simple as this.





separation of powers the constitutional doctrine of dividing governmental power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches

checks and balances the constitutional doctrine in which each branch of government shares some of the powers of the other branches in order to limit their actions

As you've posted, they do hear cases, they agree to hear cases based on the merits of if they believe that lower courts have not done correctly. It's not hard to understand. Maybe you watched that episode of Boston Legal where Denny Crane got to try a case before the SCOTUS and you think that it's real and how things get done. Denny Crane.