Washington DC - Day 2

In the morning we awoke early and headed off, through metro and walking, to the US Supreme Court which is responsible for interpreting the constitution. The heat was scolding already and kept getting hotter.  Whilst at the Supreme Court we saw all the busts of all the chief justices on display as well as sitting in for a lecture about the Supreme Court while sitting inside the actual Supreme Court.  There are supposed to be 9 judges on the bench but at the moment there are only 8 after the Chief Justice Scalia died 3 months ago.  Because their job is to interpret the constitution and their decisions are binding on all 50 states, the majority of the judges is important from the republican or democrats point of view.  Republicans for example think the right to life in the constitution means includes no abortions whereas democrats have a different opinion.  This means that the appointment of justice scalia's replacement is important for america and quickly became political with the republicans refusing to agree to any replacement nominated by president obama this year.  They want donald trump to choose who it should be after the election assuming he wins.  The lecturer told us they have already had a number of cases where there were 4 judges in favour and 4 against a decision so no interpretation or solution for the states to follow.  They get 7,000 applications each year and will only hear about 70 on average each year.  The criteria is where there is state courts' confusion about what the constitution means and a couple of other criteria I can't remember,  Each side only gets a maximum of 30 minutes to present their case to the court.  They can expect to be interrupted with up to 100 questions in the hour total they have to consider the case.  Following the tour we visited the gift shop before walking the halls and seeing the portraits of the chief justices.

Next we headed to the library of congress where we saw the main research/reading hall which is blocked off to all general admission visitors, we saw the best preserved very first original map of the USA, we saw all the pretty patterns on the ceiling and finally a bust of Thomas Jefferson who is the library's namesake. Thsi is what we saw up until then.

Our Metro at Dupont circle (also designed to be a nuclear bunker).

Capitol building where congress and senate sit (we're visiting on Monday thanks to DC Senator Norton's support of our application).

Supreme Court of the United States which interprets the Constitution.

My mum in front of the US Supreme Court.

Inside the Supreme Court and Justice Scalia portrait.

William Taft, President of the USA and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  Inside the Supreme Court.

The Library of Congress from the outside.

Ceiling of the library.

Main hall of the library of congress - largest research library in USA.

Ceiling patterns and Thomas Jefferson Bust.

More designs.

The main reading room in the Library of Congress.

The main reading room in the Library of Congress, used mostly by senators, congressmen and their researchers.

Once we'd visited the Library of Congress we went out to a mexican restaurant for lunch where we had a mixture of tacos and guacamole. The guacamole was made right in front of us.  After lunch we went to get our tickets from our Senator's office (the senator who is sponsoring us in the Rayburn executive building).  We passed select committee rooms and found that we had also been given passes into the two houses of the Senate and the Congress as well as the Pentagon. That's our Monday all booked.  We also went to see the Newseum but it was closed due to a power outage. We then went to the National Archives which houses the Bill of Rights, the Coinstitution and the Declaration of Independance.  We had to queue for a while in the heat which was like standing in a toaster - but it was great to get inside and see the internationally recognisable pieces of paper - signed by the actual founding fathers. Later in the evening we went to the Washington Memorial and sat in its shade overlooking the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial.  At 6pm it was still 35 degrees and even the wind felt like a hair dryer blowing on us.  About 6,30pm we headed over to the White House, again amazing to see the American icon. Security was strict and there were big roadblocks everywhere.  We saw snipers on the roof, at the front door and through the gardens.  They all had big guns.  Very hot to carry I would have thought in this heat.  This is what we saw.

Guacamole made right in front of us and outside. Me at the Senator for Washington DC's office.

Front page headlines of donald Trump becoming the Republican Nominee for next President.

Washington memorial.

Archives - home of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and Freedom of Information Act.

 Hamilton - first treasurer of the US and the current Treasury Building.

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Washington monument - Hamilton's wife Eliza played a key role in raising money for this monument to the first President of the US (Her husband was his right hand man/adviser).

The monument is surrounded by 50 Stars and Stripes flags.

Capitol from the Washnington monument.

So hot, 35 degrees at 6pm.

Reflecting pool and lincoln memorial.

Washington Memorial.

Washington Memorial.

 White House from behind.

Front of white house with snipers on the roof.

Close up of snipers.

Guarding the tourists from the white house.

Eisenhower executive building attached to the White House.

Andrew Jackson.

More Washington DC houses.

After looking into the White House we metroed home for a nice dinner and a well deserved sleep.

Joseph