The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: Kimberly on January 22, 2010, 09:24:00 AM
-
Are busy being smart (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7539965)
I knew this was coming. All that anger has to be channeled somewhere and on DU that means plenty of cockamanie ideas.
:mental:
Hugabear (1000+ posts) Thu Jan-21-10 11:03 PM
Original message
The last time the Supreme Court expanded was in 1869
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_Unite...
<snip>
The United States Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court, but in Article III it authorizes the Congress to fix the number of justices. The Judiciary Act of 1789 called for the appointment of six justices. As the country grew geographically, Congress increased the number of justices to correspond with the growing number of judicial circuits: the court was expanded to seven members in 1807, nine in 1837 and ten in 1863.
At the request of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act (1866) which provided that the next three justices to retire would not be replaced; thus, the size of the Court should have eventually reached seven by attrition. Consequently, one seat was removed in 1866 and a second in 1867. However, this law did not play out to completion, for in the Judiciary Act of 1869,<73> also known as the Circuit Judges Act, the number of justices was again set at nine, where it has since remained.
<snip>
I think the United States has grown rather significantly since 1869. The size of both the Senate and the House has grown over the years. Does it really make sense that nine people should wield such a vast amount of power? In all honesty, over the past several years, we've seen that it can boil down to just one or two justices making such a huge impact.
We didn't have 50 states back in 1869. We sure as hell didn't have nearly 400 million people back then.
Maybe it is time to update the SCOTUS.
TexasObserver (1000+ posts) Thu Jan-21-10 11:10 PM
Response to Original message
6. Recommend. Yes, it's time.
A big increase. Double the size. Make it 18 justices and appoint 9 new ones. Make Scalia and gang a footnote. To end the excesses of the Drug War and of the spying on Americans, to end corporate personhood excesses, we have to stop this court now.
Why stop at nine? How about 50 or a thousand? And the next president can add more. Do these idiots ever think their ideas through?
-
Do these idiots ever think their ideas through?
No.
-
When FDR tried that, people knew he was trying to be king. That's when the term limits came about. Some people over there knew that, surprisingly.
-
They are so cute in their stupid,impotent rage. :-)
-
I actually said on FR the left will want the SCOTUS impeached or expanded to 11 seats or something.
-
Why stop at nine? How about 50 or a thousand? And the next president can add more. Do these idiots ever think their ideas through?
Of course not.
destroy the banks
destroy the corporations
outlaw money
blahblah blah
They are DUmmies for a reason
-
First comes court-packing, then comes, well, the sorta packing you get if you bend over the wrong way in a prison communal shower.
-
Are busy being smart (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7539965)
I knew this was coming. All that anger has to be channeled somewhere and on DU that means plenty of cockamanie ideas.
:mental:
Why stop at nine? How about 50 or a thousand? And the next president can add more. Do these idiots ever think their ideas through?
I don't think they want to go down that path. I was listening to the radio the other day and a guy was talking about how we are supposed to have something like 7,000 representatives now! Could you imagine?
KC
-
I don't think they want to go down that path. I was listening to the radio the other day and a guy was talking about how we are supposed to have something like 7,000 representatives now! Could you imagine?
KC
The People's Congress...
-
Remember when the DUmmies were worried that ChimpyMcBushHitler would try something like this? It ain't gonna happen now either, idiots.
-
PLEASE< PLEASE go for a power grab like that and there will be open revolt. The 80% of the country that is sane will not stand for it.
-
Franklin Roosevelt tried packing the Supreme Court in 1937, a year after he had won in the greatest electoral landslide in history (up to that time; Reagan topped it 47 years later), and was the most popular man in the world.
Big mistake; the nearly-extinct Republican party came back to life in the mid-term elections of 1938.
"Court packing" was the issue of that election.