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The Supreme Court, SCOTUS, branches of government : Throughline When, why, and how did the Supreme Court get the final say in the law of the land? The question of the Court's role, and whether its decisions should reign above all the other branches of government, has been hotly debated for centuries. And that's resulted in a Supreme Court more powerful than anything the Founding Fathers could have imagined possible.

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Supreme

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Illustration by Kaz Fantone.
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Kaz Fantone
Illustration by Kaz Fantone.
Kaz Fantone

When, why, and how did the Supreme Court get the final say in the law of the land? The question of the Court's role, and whether its decisions should reign above all the other branches of government, has been hotly debated for centuries. And that's resulted in a Supreme Court more powerful than anything the Founding Fathers could have imagined possible.

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Correction Dec. 13, 2020

A previous version of this episode incorrectly said Abraham Lincoln was a senator from Illinois but he lost the senate race by 4 votes. We should have said he was a congressman from Illinois.