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Pictured: Worst Supreme Court ever.
Worst supreme Court ever so far.
I mean, possibly not quite if we go back far enough in history, Dred Scott was a thing after all.
The Lochner Era might have been worse than the pre-civil war era.
To know that the Lochner Era was like, just imagine this court in 10-years.
The Supreme Court during the Lochner era has been described as "play[ing] a judicially activist but politically conservative role".[5] The Court sometimes invalidated state and federal legislation that inhibited business or otherwise limited the free market, including minimum wage laws, federal (but not state) child labor laws, regulations of banking, insurance and transportation industries.[5] The Lochner era ended when the Court's tendency to invalidate labor and market regulations came into direct conflict with Congress's regulatory efforts in the New Deal.
The Lochner court struck down laws that would have lessened the impact of the 1929 stock market crash, and also struck down efforts to shorten the depression.
FDR flat out said that if they didn't knock it off, he would appoint as many justices as needed to undo the damage.
This current bill is maybe not the way to do it. Just add a few more seats (13 Total, to match the number of appeals circuits), and then maybe name the Federalist Society a hate group and ineligible for federal service in any capacity.
name the Federalist Society a hate group
to be fair, if we pretend they hate white people it would be signed faster than the ink could dry
I dunno. A previous one actually caused the civil war by declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Then there’s separate but equal. Then there’s the fact that the Court decided that the constitution gave it the power to rule in the constitutionality of laws even though it doesn’t say that. Then there’s saying that the second amendment applies to people rather than militias.
Wouldn't you know it, the Federalist Society implicitly supports all of those supreme courts. Their president Leonard Leo is behind half of the current supreme court appointments
That's a pretty tall claim. Maybe the worst SCOTUS in your lifetime, but if you know anything of US history, you'd know that calling it the worst SCOTUS of all time is a pretty tall order.
Hey, let's give this Court a chance. They could still ignite a civil war if they tried harder!
How about term limits in congress too?
I’m all for that too, but at least they can be voted out of office. Supreme Court Justices are appointed (which I’m ok with because I don’t want them campaigning) for life. Once they’re there, they never have to leave.
Do the justices get protection like the president? Seems like they should have better protection since they are lifers while the president is only max 8 years.
Like all federal court officials, they are protected by US Marshals
I only just learned about this when I started a new gubment job. Wild stuff.
Now, as to what really needs to happen here, Thomas, at the very least, should face corruption and bribery charges. Maybe conspiracy to commit, too.
We elect House members every 2 years and Senate every 6, whereas Supreme Court justices are lifetime appointments
This is comparing apples and plastic bottles
Fix election rules, campaign finances and gerrymandering and congress will get sorted out.
You know we fucked up when in order to enact oversight on a branch of government we need to ask for their consent first.
This is just an aside, but I love how oversight means making sure mistakes/abuses don't happen too much but also means mistake 😄
Also: to oversee (supervise); to overlook (neglect); to look over (examine).
"The Democrats have gone too far! If we introduced term limits for the Supreme Court then Clarence Thomas might have to pay for his own vacations one day!" - Fox News
This would be better if they also limited their own terms in the bill
“An organized scheme by right-wing special interests to capture and control the Supreme Court, aided by gobs of billionaire dark money flowing through the confirmation process and judicial lobbying, has resulted in an unaccountable Court out of step with the American people," Whitehouse said in a press release.
Why don't they place additional restrictions on "judicial lobbying"?
But with short terms, the court might be politicized!!1 /s
Let's start with this premise: the court is politicized because the two party system demands it over a long enough period of time.
And now we can work our way forward.
If you do this outside a Constitutional Amendment, what will happen is that it will just get challenged up to the Supreme Court, who will then strike it down.
Not really. The constitution only says that the SCOTUS exists and is the highest court. Everything else is up to Congress. There didn’t always used to be 9 justices for instance. Congress has even passed laws to strip the court of the right to hear any case they want. Some types of cases have to go through special courts of original jurisdiction, like bankruptcy.
Because Presidential term limits were defined by the 22nd Amendment, I guarantee the court will not accept limitations without a new amendment. Especially not this court.
Even if that were true, they should STILL try it. You do it to put the pressure on, to slowly move forward, put the idea in the news, on people's minds, etc. It may seem futile but we have to start somewhere.
Would the Supreme Court be able to strike such a law down if they themselves challenged it? They obviously couldn't be impartial regarding a case like this, so who would rule on something like this?
Can this be done with an act of congress or does it take a constitutional amendment?
There's nothing that says it can't be done. But I'm sure SCOTUS will have something to say should a case make it to them.
Constitutional amendment would be the best way. Not sure if it would be easier via Congress or State Legislatures given the implosion on Capitol Hill.
I can completely imagine the SCOTUS, especially the current SCOTUS, taking any law passed by the legislature and saying "Yeah that's unconstitutional" with the power to destroy all laws they unilaterally granted themselves.
That's a great question. I think the short answer is that while it may technically be possible through legislation there will most certainly be immediate and then ongoing constitutional challenges.
The best way to implement this would absolutely be through a constitutional ammendment so as to set an incredibly high bar in order to undo these changes. However, accomplishing that seems unlikely given the gridlock that defines congress in the modern era.
Do it when there's a chance of it passing, otherwise it's clear you're just looking for votes in the next election for reasons you'll never follow through with.
I got mixed feelings on this one. The whole idea of lifetime appointments was to make justices incorruptible, not beholden to anyone, and I like that, and it's mostly worked. Once they're in, their main concern is their legacy, it's a big deal for these judges. (And we know, someone's just fucking itching to tell us how corrupt Thomas is. We know.)
The better solution is probably adding more justices. That dilutes the power of the President to appoint a majority and dilutes the power of individual justices. Tie it to something other than the whim of Congress. One for each circuit court?
Oh, and how about some ethics rules? Didn't Amy Coney Barrett just come out in favor?
Oh, and how about some ethics rules? Didn't Amy Coney Barrett just come out in favor?
According to another poster in a different thread a few days ago, the ethics guidelines are basically already in place and just aren’t enforced. That person suggested that we need more enforcement or penalties rather than more ethics rules.
I like your idea of adding more justices because of what you said about diluting the president’s power to appoint a majority. It’s an interesting point, although we shouldn’t be in the situation we are in now (“Wait, wait, you can’t rush the process…oh, now that we have the majority we need to finish this quickly!”)
Good luck with that. Republicans like it as it currently is and won't allow anything to change that.
As soon as there is a Democrats majority though, they'll be spewing bile and demand that some bill gets pushed through that allow term limits...
I have three words for you: Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
To refresh your memory, Obama asked her to retire so that he could appoint a young liberal justice who could sit the court for the next 30 years. Unfortunately, that geriatric bag of bones clung to power until her death. Guess who's term she died under, and who got to appoint her replacement? Oh yeah, the big Don. So now because of that we have a conservative court for the foreseeable future.
This is a smoke and mirrors political move.