Who are nine justices?

Answer 1

The current (2013) Supreme Court Justices are: Sonia Sotomayer, Steven Breyer, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

The Supreme Court deals with court cases on the Federal Level. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all federal courts and over state court cases involving issues of federal law, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases.

The Judicial Branch interprets the law. The powers granted to the Supreme Court are:
To determine which laws Congress intended to apply to any given case
To exercise judicial review, reviewing the constitutionality of laws
To determine how Congress meant the law to apply to disputes
To determine how a law acts to determine the disposition of prisoners
To determine how a law acts to compel testimony and the production of evidence
To determine how laws should be interpreted to assure uniform policies in a top-down fashion via the appeals process, but gives discretion in individual cases to low-level judges
Ability to serve for life unless they retire, resign or are impeached