Opinion: The Supreme Court isn't well. The only hope for a cure is more justices

[dutch508]

Star Member JoanofArgh (14,475 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216129591

Opinion: The Supreme Court isn't well. The only hope for a cure is more justices.
By Nancy Gertner and Laurence H. Tribe
Today at 5:01 p.m. EST WP



Nancy Gertner is a retired U.S. District Court judge. Laurence H. Tribe is Carl M. Loeb University Professor emeritus and professor of constitutional law emeritus at Harvard Law School. Both served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court.

We now believe that Congress must expand the size of the Supreme Court and do so as soon as possible. We did not come to this conclusion lightly. One of us is a constitutional law scholar and frequent advocate before the Supreme Court, the other a federal judge for 17 years. After serving on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court over eight months, hearing multiple witnesses, reading draft upon draft of the final report issued this week, our views have evolved. We started out leaning toward term limits for Supreme Court justices but against court expansion and ended up doubtful about term limits but in favor of expanding the size of the court.


But make no mistake: In voting to submit the report to the president neither of us cast a vote of confidence in the Supreme Court itself. Sadly, we no longer have that confidence, given three things: first, the dubious legitimacy of the way some justices were appointed; second, what Justice Sonia Sotomayor rightly called the “stench” of politics hovering over this court’s deliberations about the most contentious issues; and third, the anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian direction of this court’s decisions about matters such as voting rights, gerrymandering and the corrupting effects of dark money.

Those judicial decisions haven’t been just wrong; they put the court — and, more important, our entire system of government — on a one-way trip from a defective but still hopeful democracy toward a system in which the few corruptly govern the many, something between autocracy and oligarchy. Instead of serving as a guardrail against going over that cliff, our Supreme Court has become an all-too-willing accomplice in that disaster.


Worse, measures the court has enabled will fundamentally change the court and the law for decades. They operate to entrench the power of one political party: constricting the vote, denying fair access to the ballot to people of color and other minorities, and allowing legislative district lines to be drawn that exacerbate demographic differences. As a result, the usual ebb and flow that once tended to occur with succeeding elections is stalling. A Supreme Court that has been effectively packed by one party will remain packed into the indefinite future, with serious consequences to our democracy. This is a uniquely perilous moment that demands a unique response.

Leftists crying about the USSC... 

Tetrachloride (1,315 posts)

1. Count me in for USSC expansion

Until it's a [R] President, that is...

Star Member bucolic_frolic (28,111 posts)

2. There is another idea

They fall into such batshit disregard that no one takes them seriously and their ability to enforce the law becomes regional, selective, and weak for awhile. Marbury v. Madison isn't safe in their current lunacy. It was not known when the Constitution was ratified that the Supreme Court would hold such a powerful and lofty position. Power was all very new after the weak Articles of Confederation. Currently the right-wingers are like a bad set of ill-informed high school club members, rigid and uninventive. We fear what's happening, but in my view the insitution is faltering as the cases roll by.

Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, was a U.S. Supreme Court case that established the precedent of judicial review. This judicial review power allows the Supreme Court to invalidate or declare unconstitutional actions or laws created by levels of government. The case surrounds the question of whether or not William Marbury’s right to a commission is valid and if he is due a mandamus from the court. The decision of the court also called into question the Judiciary Act of 1789 and if the constitution was superior or not. Given the supremacy clause, the constitution was deemed the supreme law and Marbury’s commission was denied and the case was discharged.

Star Member JoanofArgh (14,475 posts)

4. Oh, yes. Somebody was talking about this on MSNBC. The Supreme Court will become a joke and will be ignored.

One thing that's always gotten me is how every level of judgeship in the federal system has ethics laws they have to abide by except for the Supreme Court. This is insane. Sheldon Whitehouse has been talking about this for a while and said it needs to be corrected.

Fiendish Thingy (8,175 posts)

5. At least 15, 21 seats would be best

Dilute the power of any single Justice as much as possible.

 

Star Member roamer65 (29,420 posts)

6. How many federal circuits are there?

I think there are 13.

If so we need 13 justices at least. One for each circuit.

radius777 (3,055 posts)

7. We need expansion and term limits. /nt

 

[SVPete]

[jukin]

A common leftist tactic. When losing the game, change the rules.

[FlaGator]

A common leftist tactic. When losing the game, change the rules.

Exactly. This is what they did with the supermajority to confirm administration nominees and then it backfired when they were no longer in office. Pack the court now and eventually a conservative will get elected into off and that person will change the total number of judges to give the Republicans a majority. Back and forth it will go until we have more judges than members of congress all voting along party lines and laws will no longer matter. We'll be back to right my might and not rule by Constitution.

[ADsOutburst]

Problems: The "stench of politics" hanging over the court, and the "dubious legitimacy of the way in which some justices were appointed".

Solution: Expand the court. 

[USA4ME]

Opinion: The Supreme Court isn't well. The only hope for a cure is more justices.
By Nancy Gertner and Laurence H. Tribe

Fact: Nancy Gertner and Lawrence H. Tribe, and all those who would agree with this opinion piece they wrote, are authoritarians and desire America to become a LW dictatorship.

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