SCOTUS
It began the day of the leaking of the draft, maybe even in anticipation thereof. Legal scholars, bright law students, and informed journalists began the shredding process. In the days since and for far into the future they have and will point out the many fallacies in logic; the disregard for unintended consequences; the disregard for reality, personal rights, females, and human life; the intent of the founders; the need for the Constitution to evolve. The Federalist Society told Sam, Clarence, and CO that they were geniuses. The damned fools believed them. The process of disabusing begins.
This is the way it has always been done; a way that takes far too long.
For a Supreme Court to be effective, it must, as nearly as possible, comprise the best, brightest, legal scholars; scholars who are also wise. The Constitution in its paucity leaves it to Congress. Other impeachment and certifiable dementia; Congress is the only constitutional check on the Court. The McConnell Court demands Congress act to preclude such an inept, lopsided majority recurring. It is time for the Nation to come to grips with its Supreme Court problem.
Congress could legislate that confirmation to the court requires two-thirds approval in the Senate. Congress could establish polling of the top one-thousand legal scholars for their recommendation of nominees. Congress could limit Court terms to, say, eighteen years. Congress could impose mandatory retirement at seventy years of age, or less. Congress could establish a non-partisan judicial review board. Congress could increase the number of justices significantly. Congress could require annual mental acuity testing on sitting judges and justices.
The rot of the McConnell Court far exceeds Roe. This lot is not one of wise men and women. This lot spent a lifetime getting on the Court in order to impose an agenda; an agenda with no regard for consequences. An agenda that transcends the Nation’s need to deal with a one-million death pandemic, Climate Change, the slaughter of children with assault weaponry, …, gerrymandering, inequality, and voter suppression.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/07/03/dont-expand-the-supreme-court-shrink-it-00043863
Post Script – from a lawyer friend: A way to think of it, is court-capture. The Federalist Society and dark money interests have a servile court now. And now that Court has discarded all semblance of public perception, decorum, dignity: to deliver quickly the upheaval they were always under orders to deliver. Loose analogy is regulatory-capture. Long established reality. Now the analogous has happened in the ultimate body.
The rule of law, like money, only works when people believe in it. The Roberts court has soiled the SCOTUS coin. Upcoming decisions that will allow state legislatures to overturn election results promise to tear the fabric of belief to the point that the majority of Americans who rejected Trump both times will question the rule of law. When that happens, there won’t be enough police and jail cells to contain the reaction. The GOP is playing with fire.
Could District Courts, States, the President, …, and Congress, just ignore the Court’s rulings?
Yes, but they won’t.
It’s happened before.
https://sustainatlanta.com/2015/04/02/remembering-the-time-andrew-jackson-decided-to-ignore-the-supreme-court-in-the-name-of-georgias-right-to-cherokee-land/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CJohn%20Marshall%20has%20made%20his,1832%20decision%20in%20Worcester%20v.
Andy’s long gone.
Hi Jack:
I was thinking of Andrew also. I am assuming you are meaning pack the Senate with 55 or more Senators and win the House again. With Repubs blowing themselves up every week, it is possible. I am also stating to think the Repub Justices leaked Alito Opinion with apurpose to distract. We will never hear who did it. Best guess is Ginni Thomas.
The Alito abortion decision did not forbid states from permitting abortion.
Marijuana became legal in many states even though it is still illegal federally.
People, by & large, can certainly ignore Supreme Court decisions, as they often have in the past. (Andrew Jackson’s spirit lives on!)
Too late for most of that. At this point, packing is probably the only chance of stopping the unravelling of our system.
The Ninth Circuit has 26 judges. Seems the Supreme should have at least that many and all should be subject to the criteria listed.
Requires Congressional action which is unlikely at present.
Requires Congressional action which is impossible at present.
FIFY
Another Step Toward Climate Apocalypse
NY Times – Paul Krugman – July 4
Another Step Toward Climate Apocalypse
NY Times – Paul Krugman – July 4
We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave. Also a temperate heat wave and an Arctic heat wave, with temperatures reaching the high 80s in northern Norway. The megadrought in the Western United States has reduced Lake Mead to a small fraction of its former size, and it now threatens to become a “dead pool” that can no longer supply water to major cities. Climate change is already doing immense damage, and it’s probably only a matter of time before we experience huge catastrophes that take thousands of lives.
And the Republican majority on the Supreme Court just voted to limit the Biden administration’s ability to do anything about it.
It says something about the state of U.S. politics that a number of environmental experts I follow were actually relieved by the ruling, which was less sweeping than they feared and still left the administration with some possible paths for climate action. I guess, given where we are, objectively bad decisions must be graded on a curve. …
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/07/03/dont-expand-the-supreme-court-shrink-it-00043863
Hmmm. From the cited op-ed…
… 1937, when President Franklin Roosevelt unsuccessfully attempted to circumvent a hostile court by expanding its membership, is a deeply controversial practice. …
(FDR had indicated he was going to pack the SC with New-Deal-favoring appointees. The conservative justices who were threatening the New Deal promptly resigned, so there was no need to pack the court. That was considered an FDR victory at the time.)
The op-ed suggests ‘shrinking’ the Court. How would that be done?
Perhaps, like this. Congress passes legislation reducing the SC Justice count to 6 from 9. Does it follow that the 3 justices with least seniority would then be removed? Or would it be the 3 least-conservative Justices? Please explain.
Congress has raised the number of Justices several times? There’s no particular reason why they couldn’t do it again, aside from filibustering.
Have they ever reduced it?
Why Do 9 Justices Serve on the Supreme Court?
Only since 1869 have there consistently been nine justices appointed to the Supreme Court. Before that, Congress routinely changed the number of justices to achieve its own partisan political goals, resulting in as few as five Supreme Court justices required by law under John Adams to as many as 10 under Abraham Lincoln. …
They can’t force resignations. The constitution gives them lifetime tenure. As vacancies occur, the number of seats could be reduced but that wouldn’t give any faction new votes. Roosevelt’s action didn’t cause resignations; it caused changed rulings.
Hmmm. A variation on the FDR strategy. Fearing court-packing by Biden, Alito and Thomas resign forthwith. The court shrinks to seven justices. Mitch McConnell, with the filibuster still intact, refuses to approve replacements until after 2024 election. Shrinkage is achieved, new progressive justices are not appointed. Conservative majority is maintained. Dems are humiliated. Why would Alito & Thomas resign? Otherwise, there would be no ‘shrinkage’.
Hmmm. Maybe McConnell would consider putting Manchin & Sinema on the Court?
Our best and brightest, the three. History will not be fooled.
The ‘Four Horsemen’ who opposed the New Deal:
Pierce Butler, died in office 1939
James McReynolds, retired in 1941
George Sutherland, retired 1938
Willis Van Devanter, retired 1937
However, the Senate did refuse to enact FDR’s court-packing proposal. The vote was 70 to 20, but 3 of the New Deal opposing Four Horsemen were gone before 1940 and the 4th was gone a year after that.