Expand the court. "But republicans will do the same" you might say. To that I say "okay, let the court be a million judges to show just how shitty and ridiculous it is, let it collapse under its own stupidity. Besides, the conservatives already control the court, so there's really nothing to lose."
this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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Make every US citizen a justice upon turning the minimum age for a Supreme Court justice.
Upon learning this in High School I was baffelled... There are no requirements to being a Supreme Court justice in the constitution. Simply that you are appointed by the president, and Congress confirms you. You don't need a background in law at all. There is no age requirement at all. There aren't even citizenship requirements. By the Constitution, Biden could appoint Gretta Thornburg to the Supreme Court, and Congress could confirm her, and we would have Justice Thornburg for the next 70-odd years.
https://www.findingalawyer.org/supreme-court-justice-qualifications/
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My favored tactic is to -- Bam! Expand the court to 11 in one year, than 13 in two. Nuke the filibuster if you have to.
Then Democrats can sit down with Republicans and say "You can let us appoint 4 justices to lifetime terms and wait until you get the Presidency and both houses of Congress to expand it more, or you can work with us to pass an amendment to set up term limits and other reforms so the SC is no longer a political football".
The main issue is confirmations. If enough Republicans hold the Senate, they can stall confirmation until their guy comes into office and then stuff the court further.
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NO position should ever be for life. It's ridiculous that we have 70/80/90 year olds running things forever until they die. They should retire and let the next generation take the reins. Age and term limits. Courts should not be able to be packed like this. Nothing should.
They should also probably be held to some ethical standards, but that's too much for the nation's most powerful court/justices. Nevermind the US code of conduct says justices are to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
But who needs a functional government or justice system? It's just keeping big business from making even more money, and destroying the planet faster.
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Also, the fact that the reasoning behind this is because they don't want the justices to be pressured by partisian issues is ironic considering....
I don't see how anyone ever thought that a president appointing them would be bipartisan. Ironic indeed.
“Ok, we want to find the best legal minds in the country to serve on the Supreme Court in a fair manner without political bias. How do we select them?”
“Let’s put the selection in the hands of a politician!” (With confirmations also done by politicians)
“Brilliant!”
Though I guess that any other system put in place could be corrupted in some other way.
Australian High Court justices have an age limit.
I’ve long held that if a “life sentence” in prison is 20 years, then 20 years should be the lifetime term of a SC justice.
Limits on age and terms, as well as tests for competency and ethics, would also be great additions. It’s kind of amazing this isn’t already a thing.
I was in DC recently, and I saw Ruth’s grave, and just wish she knew the legacy she created.
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Not like she can do anything either. If she steps down now, Biden replaces her, demographics of the court stay the same.
All she can do is hang on until Thomas and Alito are replaced and hope that happens under a Democratic President
That will flip the court from 6-3 conservative to 5-4 liberal, but then the problem is the next 3 oldest justices are Sotomayor, Roberts and Kagen.
The truly frustrating thing about all of this is that the courts composition can be changed by acts of congress. The republicans pulled some massive bullshit to get this court. Biden could run with the campaign promise to unfuck the Supreme Court. This would be massively popular. Just add justices to rebalance the court. It can be done.
As much as I'd like that, the new justices would still need to get approved by congress. Unless we get 60 Dem senators, we're stuck at 9 for the foreseeable future.
I don’t believe the filibuster applies to judicial nominees anymore.
It doesn't, but an act to change the size of the court would have to go through the House and Senate and we don't have the votes in either body for that right now.
Fun fact, the last time we changed the court size was to SHRINK it from 10 to 7 in order to deny President Johnson (no, the other one) a Supreme court pick.
After he got bounced and replaced by Grant, they increased it back to 9 where it has been ever since.
I wouldn't be averse to something similar, shrink the court from 9 to 5, elimimate the 4 most recently added justices. Yeah, we'd lose Brown-Jackson, but that's a small price to pay to get rid of Trump's nominees.
The court would then split 2 conservative, 2 liberal with Roberts as the swing vote.
IIRC, most legal scholars believe that shrinking the court doesn't get rid of existing justices as they are appointed for life. It simply prevents the appointment of new ones.
Seal Team Six and presidential immunity can take care of that.
Biden could run with the campaign promise to unfuck the Supreme Court. This would be massively popular.
It would be massively popular but I don't see it galvanizing new voters. Anyone civically engaged enough to understand the fuckedness of the supreme court was already planning to vote Biden.
He doesn’t need new voters, he needs to energize his base which he seems intent on demoralizing with his Gaza bullshit.
He very much needs new voters. Anyway I'm not saying he shouldn't do it, I'm saying it's not a big vote getter.
It's sad how true this is.
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She's a 69 year old type 1 diabetic...
You know what the average lifespan for a type 1 diabetic woman is?
68 years old...
She should have stepped down immediately and let Biden replace her. Instead if Biden keeps fucking up, trump could very likely get another.
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Eh, civil disobedience is making a comeback.
These fucks are going to learn real quick how the social contract is a two-way agreement.
They'll have to push REALLY, REALLY far before they actually motivate most people to resist.
You know... legally speaking, she is allowed to kill the other justices.
Boomers dying out will be the best thing for this country.
I don't think Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett are Boomers. (Kavanaugh IS within months though.)
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Yeah, welcome to the fucking club.
No mention that the supreme court is about to dismantle democratic control over agencies. There is a big power grab underway to deregulate everything and cripple government. Only know of it from here:
Damn, I feel like she opened up a lot more than SCOTUS judges typically do. That’s telling.
I can't imagine how frustrating it must be
I wonder if she thinks she should have worked harder at convincing RBG to retire sooner. You know, when Obama was president.
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