More KaiserDave Rants: Now the Supreme Court

[KaiserDave]

I suppose I'm in a ranting mood. But here I ago, apologies in advance.

The Supreme Court has become politicized. There's no going back. Whoever you want to blame, it's happened. I blame McConnell and his criminal cohort, you may blame Harry Reid, or Trump, George Bush, or Obama, or even the framers. But that is the situation, whether it started with Bush vs Gore, or the Garland Affair.

If the Republicans violate their own standards and nominate someone for RBG's seat, it will be irreparable. Dems will almost certainly pack the court with another 2 or more judges, and then the next time a Republican is in office they will add another 2 and we will be on the path to a Banana Republic even more so than we are now.

The only solution is structural reform, a constitutional amendment. Now, I don't believe this will happen, but I am laying out what I think should happen.

I want to bounce off the ideas proposed by others than when there is a vacancy on the court, the other 8 Justices should unanimously appoint a successor. In this way politicians are taken out of the equation, and legal scholars are brought into it. This is a plan based on consensus and moderation that would ultimately lead a court of moderates and scholars who would leave law making to law makers.

I think it's a good idea, but I'm pessimistic it would ever happen.

[KaiserDave]

At the risk of being pedantic, what would it even mean to depoliticize the Supreme Court? The institution is inherently political because its judgments have implications for public policy. It's just not realistic to expect it to remain free from partisan & ideological concerns.

The best you can do is to have an informed, active, & organized public that makes its voting decisions with a relatively impartial judiciary in mind, &:

Maybe not depoliticize, but do what we can do depoliticianize