You vs. The Supreme Court: Why their rulings affect your everyday life

Your name does not have to fall in the case of a supreme court ruling to affect your personal life. There may be the sudden need to drive an hour to receive contraception. Or the college of your dreams no longer cultivates the diversity you applied for. These aren’t random occurrences. This is the result of the powerful silent hand determining aspects of your life. This is the effect of the Supreme Court.

Established in 1789, the Supreme Court was tasked with interpreting and applying the law during legal disputes and proceedings to ensure laws comply with the constitution. It acts as the third chamber in the United States checks and balances system — another aspect of government that citizens should be able to take notes of and challenge when necessary. However, when it comes to the Supreme Court it operates in the shadows, with less eyes and care placed on what occurs there in comparison to the Legislative and Executive branches.

Unless a high-profile case, such as Roe v. Wade, goes into court, many citizens have no idea what cases the Supreme Court have chosen to take on, and most importantly, how those cases affect them. Most, if not all cases chosen by the Supreme court determine and make changes to everyday lives before our very eyes.

The Court’s job has never been to simply “make laws” but their rulings become the final say on what the law means.

Consider the case of Roe v. Wade. A 1973 Supreme Court decision that allotted women a newfound freedom over their own reproductive health. Initially the case arose from a challenge to Texas laws that made abortion illegal unless under the circumstances to save a woman’s life. In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that those laws were unconstitutional. It gave thousands of women the ability to choose whether to have an abortion and protected that choice federally.

49 Years after that landmark decision was made by the Court, it was overruled. The new decision made in 2022 eliminated federal protection for abortion rights and returned power to the states. This overruling destroyed access to safe abortions across the country for thousands of lives. Suddenly clinics were closed, and people had to travel across state lines for medical care. There were also indirect effects towards birth-control limiting access.

In 2023 the Supreme Court ruled that race-based admissions, a prominent aspect of college applications referred to as “affirmative action,” violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling made for Students for Fair Admissions; Inc (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College single-handedly ended a decades-long effort to level the playing field in college admissions. For students of color, the impact was immediate.

Many universities had long been considering race as one fact among many, along side test scores, extracurriculars, and essays, to create a diverse and representative student body. But the Court’s ruling shut that door. The loss of Affirmative action didn’t only change who would get admitted into certain universities, it has begun to reshape the environment students enter. Without implementing the tools to ensure diversity, campuses risk becoming homogeneous, isolated, and disconnected from the multi-cultural reality of American life. For many students, the college they dreamed of attending may no longer be the one that sees or values them.

The decision also threatens other areas such as corporate diversity initiatives to scholarships, casting doubts on any effort that names race as a factor in opportunity.

Even in situations where the Supreme Court faces important decisions, such as that of Wade or SFFA, most people don’t follow the Supreme Court. There might be the occasional headline one might hear and recognize, but many fail to delve deeper into these cases and realize how the court rulings are affecting their lives— often before they even notice. Why?

Well, the Supreme Court can move quietly. They don’t launch campaigns, pass bills, or work in plain language. They work with dense legal opinions, published many months after oral arguments, filled with citations and footnotes most Americans don’t bother to read, or understand. Part of this disconnect is by design. The Supreme Court isn’t voted for, they are picked and given lifelong terms. The Justices don’t answer to voters, they answer to precedent, constitutional interpretation, and in some cases personal opinion. While lower courts have limits implemented through laws or ideas such as vertical decisis, the Supreme Court is the final say.

The Media plays a large role as well. New coverage often focuses on political drama, rather than explaining the Human stakes correlated with the cases. The real effects of a ruling, especially in that of a lower profile case, often unfold slowly and unevenly. This makes it difficult for people to track what is occurring and call for change before they are affected.

The Supreme Court doesn’t leave a notice at your door before changing the rules you abide by in life. Nor does it ask for permission before redrawing voting districts or restricting healthcare access. Its power is silent but monumental. That’s why it requires our attention, not out of fear but responsibility. Understanding the Court’s role, its decisions and their real-world impact is essential to preserving our rights and understanding our Judicial system.

Civic engagement will never simply be about voting during an election, it’s about staying informed, speaking up, and holding institutions accountable. The constitution begins with “We the People” – an acknowledgement that the power ultimately belongs to us. If the court closes a door, it’s on us to open it again.