How the Supreme Court put itself in charge of the executive branch
How the Supreme Court put itself in charge of the executive branch
The major questions doctrine, explained.
...and the Senate put itself in charge of the Judicial branch. Anything the President could do to offset either power grab is checked by the Senate. We need to stop pretending that the Presidential election is the most important.
Local elections have a lot more impact on your quality of life, and there's usually at least one every year.
The key to voting, as shown by the Evangelicals managing to overturn Roe, is to do it consistently. Every primary, every election, for decades. Unfortunately that's what it takes to effect change in our system of government.
They do have more impact in general, but national allows malicious actors to overrule local laws and suppress votes.
Both are critical even though I agree people should increase their focus on local politics.
You mean you aren't supposed to just bitch about how your elected official didn't magically do everything you wanted and then stop voting?
I'd be fine with a Presidential Review of the Supreme Court every four years offset by two years of the Presidential election. This would allow a President to replace members of the Supreme Court with a simple majority of the House and Senate as part of the conformation of a new judge. The President would have to justify the replacement for criminal or ethical reasons confirmed by both houses of Congress.
I’d be fine with a Presidential Review of the Supreme Court every four years offset by two years of the Presidential election. This would allow a President to replace members of the Supreme Court with a simple majority of the House and Senate as part of the conformation of a new judge. The President would have to justify the replacement for criminal or ethical reasons confirmed by both houses of Congress.
This would be great until Trump 2.0 comes along and throws out liberal judges he doesn't like or that he knows won't rule in his favor, backed by a complicit Congress. We just got finished with four years off watching one man almost singlehandedly corrupt every single branch of government with ease, so it's not like this idea is far fetched.
Rulings would no longer be about what is (supposed to be) best for the American people but instead would be about what rulings to give so they can keep their cushy jobs, especially when the White House and Congress are both controlled by the same party.
I understand the sentiment behind trying to get the corrupt judges off the bench, but this would likely just make the situation worse, not better.
That is why there is still a check by Congress and it occurs at the Midterm.
This is going to be uncomfortable to say but I feel that it is crucial that it be said.
In case you were not aware of the situation in Israel right now, the state is on the brink of civil war. This is not hyperbole. The situation that ultimately boiled over to cause this is in a narrow certain sense a mirror image of what's happening in the US. The conservatives have gotten hold of the executive branch whereas the supreme court, while officially neutral, acts as a bulwark of liberalism. As a result, conservatives have raised many of the same frustrated points that US liberals are raising now: "How dare the judiciary put itself above the executive branch? Vox populi vox dei". Under this banner they justify a 'judicial reform' which will do just that and, bluntly, put the government above the law.
I implore you not to reach the conclusion that there is something wrong with the judiciary having oversight over the executive branch -- that because the government is democratically elected, it therefore must be the case that putting the government above the law will result in maximum democracy. This "maximum democracy" is precisely what they have right now in Hungary and Poland, and its ultimate end result is what they currently have in Russia and China. A strong, independent judiciary is necessary to keep the executive branch in check and make sure it doesn't abuse its power to take control of the media, the electoral process, the state's functioning institutions, to secure more power and act with destructive impunity. An oft-mocked hypothetical question in the Israeli public discourse today, which is also a completely valid argument, goes: "If the government forces through a law that all gingers be executed tomorrow, what then? Who will put a stop to it?". A strong, independent judiciary is the only possible answer. "The people" cannot and will not keep a rogue populist government in check. Again, look to Hungary and Russia.
Now, this does not mean that you have to be content with the current state of the US supreme court, and meekly accept what it does and the values it stands for. I certainly don't. Indeed, in Israel too, there have been many voices over the years which have called to temper the supreme court's perceived political activism, and the previous (much less extremist) government contained several non-populist elements which successfully advocated for "their candidates" to reach the supreme court. Maybe the required reform in the US supreme court should be different and could be achieved by different means than this, but please, don't follow Israel off this cliff, don't fall in love with the notion that a strong judiciary is a burden on democracy. The opposite is true.
Netanyahu's legislation would give the Knesset the power to overrule their Supreme Court with a simple majority vote. I've not seen anyone make an argument for such extreme measures to redress the US Supreme Court, and certainly not in this article. The most common arguments I've seen are,
These all have risks, but so does taking no action.
This is the scariest thing I've read. I hope we have a way to fix all this before the next election. Adding many, many justices is the first step.
Never going to happen. Not a chance with the current congress.
The President could stop this at any time. All he needs to do is pack the court with more justices to rebalance it. Not doing so makes him complicit.Foot meet mouth. I'm an idiot.
Exactly how does the president do that? He cannot expand the court on his own. Congress doesn't have enough Democrats to do it. None of the current justices are going anywhere unless they die.