“No Constitution is the same on Paper and in Life.” That was written by Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania. He wrote the Constitution’s final draft. Morris meant that words on paper do not change, but life does. The world changes.
For example, the framers couldn’t imagine television or the Internet. How should freedom of the press work for those media? The nine justices of the Supreme Court have the job of interpreting the Constitution in a changing world. They decide if acts of Congress and the president are allowed by the Constitution. This is called judicial review.

John Marshall served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 until his death in 1835.
◀ In 1803, the Supreme Court heard the case of Marbury v. Madison. It concerned Marbury’s claim that he had been cheated out of a job as a federal judge. The court didn’t rule on his claim. It ruled instead that the law the case was being tried under was unconstitutional. This was the first time the Supreme Court claimed the right of judicial review.
Check It Out!
Has anyone ever served as both the president of the United States and chief justice of the Supreme Court?
William Howard Taft is the only person to have served as both. He was president from 1909–1913 and chief justice from 1921–1930.

◀ Dred Scott was an enslaved man. His owner took him to free territory, where slavery was not allowed. He lived there for five years. Then he was returned to a state that allowed slavery. Scott sued for his freedom. He claimed that he became free when he left a slave-holding state. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott was not a citizen because he was a slave. So he could not use the federal courts. That meant he was still enslaved. The ruling outraged those who were against slavery.

▲ Gold was discovered on Cherokee land. So Georgia gave Cherokee land to white settlers. The Cherokees sued in federal court. In 1832, the Supreme Court upheld their claim to their land. However, President Andrew Jackson would not carry out the court’s ruling. Jackson said, “[Chief Justice] John Marshall has rendered his decision. Now let him enforce it.” Later, the Cherokees were forced to leave their land.

◀ The Supreme Court sometimes changes its mind. In 1940, it ruled that schools could make students salute the flag. They could force them, even if it was against their religion. In 1943, the court reversed this ruling.

▲ It can take the court years to change an unfair ruling. Take the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson. The court ruled that making African Americans sit in separate railway cars was legal. But the cars had to be equal to those for whites. This was called the “separate but equal” ruling. It was used to make segregation OK in all kinds of public places. But in 1954, the court heard the case of Brown v. Board of Education. This time it said separate schools for African American children were in fact unequal. So, it ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional.
Supreme Court justices don’t all agree on how to interpret the Constitution. Some believe in a “living Constitution.” They think the framers wanted the Constitution to be flexible. That way, it could adapt to the ever-changing world. Other justices are called originalists. They say the courts should base their rulings only on the original intent of the framers. But who decides what that was? ▼

Explore inside the Supreme Court
In 1966, the court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that crime suspects must be told their rights. They have the right to remain silent. They have the right to have an attorney present. And if they can’t afford an attorney, the state must provide one. ▼

◀ The Supreme Court can also affect public policy by doing nothing. Here is a recent example. Surveillance means secretly listening to or reading a private message. It might be a telephone call or an e-mail. The Fourth Amendment says the government must ask a judge for a search warrant before doing this. Things have changed since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Sometimes the government has done surveillance without first getting a warrant. In 2014, the Supreme Court decided not to hear a case about this practice.