Think about this for a second: a Supreme Court justice thinks NO ONE has the power to hold them to an ethical standard. I can think of no better reason to hold them to an ethical standard than that.
This is genuinely quite a scary belief coming from a SCOTUS justice. In effect he is saying that the SCOTUS is the only institution in the US that is completely untouchable by legislation. That elevates the SCOTUS to a level beyond any other government position. Effectively our benevolent overlords. Given how low of approval ratings that the SCOTUS has, their recent series of ideological activist decisions, and the fact that they aren’t even elected positions, I find myself increasingly in support of a fundamental redefinition of the SCOTUS as we know it. I don’t see why we shouldn’t stack the SCOTUS when they’ve fundamentally abandoned their duty to any level of fairness or responsibility for the citizens of the US.
I like the idea of terms being twenty years and judges being selected randomly from existing sitting judges in lower courts. Takes all the air out of the balloon around Congress fighting over approving SCOTUS judges.
I kind of like that idea, except I think it’s less likely to create a non-partisan court and more likely to create a randomly partisan court. Like, odds are that five of the justices would still have a partisan lean. Is that fair to the American people? Also, when Republicans block a president from having their judicial nominations confirmed, then it becomes even more likely for conservative justices to make it to the SCOTUS. Same for if Dems blocked. It would incentize obstruction.
I’ve felt that we should simply have the SCOTUS be elected like we do in many states. Why shouldn’t the people have a direct say in who makes the greatest decisions about our constitution? It was one thing when the court was ostensibly non-partisan, but at this point if it’s going to be partisan either way, we should just make it elected.
Alternatively, we could bake the partisanship into the court. Make the court have an even number, then reward an equal number of justices to the major parties (parties receiving more than x% of the vote in presidential elections or something like that). If libertarians or greens ever get more popular, we can have the court autoadjust to split between more parties. That’s my hairbrained idea that would probably be too messy to be worth it.
Unelected, serve for life, say they are untouchable and can do as they please. How is that not a king?
Because Supreme Court cant create their own laws directly, missing legislature power, having no direct power to control national finances/budgets, a main power of a country and they dont have control of the executives including army and police. All their power depends on laws made by legislature and constitution.
Thats how the three pillars of power works in all democracies. Just because your legislature or executives or even forefathers who made the constitution fucked up, doesnt mean the supreme court is an absolute monarchy. The biggest piece of shit mistake you made was having a two party system. In other countries, supreme courts arent as binary partisan. Coalitions of Partys vote way more reasonable judges to supreme courts
Considering the Supreme Court’s entire schtick is the arbitrary definition of a word’s meaning by the sitting justices… I’d disagree.
They can literally change the definition of a law at a whim. It doesn’t really matter at that point what the law even says unless it’s lawyered up specifically to remove their powers. Even then, don’t expect the conservative justices to go down without a fight lol.
George Washington warned against bicameralism, but they ignored him. Our Supreme Court positions have always been non-partisan until recent history.
The problem is that they blatantly collude with the other two pillars. They can’t make their own laws, but they can collude with the others to bring a case to their doorstep to make a ruling not based on precedent or good faith interpretation of the law.
They effectively can create whatever laws they want, just with extra steps.
Any position that is for life is too long, especially an appointed one with almost zero mechanisms for removal.
If Congress lacks the authority to regulate the Supreme Court, then certainly they also lack the authority to fund the Supreme Court…
State judiciary: powerless versus their congress.
Federal judiciary: unquestionable.
Get the fuck out of our government, you miserable bastard.
Alito is wrong. Just like he’s wrong about a lot of other things.
He’s an asshole, but he’s right. SCOTUS is supposed to be the last stop for constitutional rights. They can even block presidential directives if they are what they (Scotus) perceive as unconstitutional. However we’ve recently learned that there’s a couple of members with sugar daddies and saying something like this isn’t only piss poor timing, it’s basically saying that Alito believes himself to be untouchable and infallible with authority over congress. Now keep in mind that we as American citizens make the ultimate vote (by the majority) to fill congressional seats to cater to the majority’s needs, Alito is saying that SCOTUS is untouchable and infallible to the people
Well, as I see it, Mr. Alito… You can either have Congress do it, or you can have an angry mob do it. Which do you prefer?
I’ll believe it when I see it, Americans are quite pacified.
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