The Supreme Court wouldn’t have to show it’s power to match the Legislative and Executive if those two would do the job they Constitution requires (you can read not behind the paywall here)
By now, most of us are used to U.S. Supreme Court rulings that bring big changes to American life — on abortion, guns, same-sex marriage and more. Thursday may bring another sweeping ruling, on climate change.
But the Supreme Court’s power is strange in a global context. The highest-level courts in other rich democracies tend to be less dominant. Elsewhere, courts can still overturn laws and restrict the government’s reach, but they often face sharper limits on their decisions.
There are two major reasons that the U.S. Supreme Court is unusual. First, the court’s structure allows for few checks on the justices’ power: They have lifetime tenure, and other branches of government have few ways to overturn a ruling. Second, the dysfunction of the rest of the U.S. government, especially Congress, has created a vacuum that the Supreme Court fills.
Unchecked judges
Supreme Court justices remain on the bench for life or until they choose to retire. In other countries, there are term or age limits: Judges on Germany’s federal constitutional court, for example, serve for 12 years or until age 68, whichever is sooner.
This is sounding rather insurrectiony, isn’t it? It’s also utterly ridiculous. Who cares how other countries act? Notice in those other countries that the legislatures and the executive offices, including the head, run roughshod with few checks on their power. We have a nice little system with three branches that are equally powerful. And, if the Legislative and Executive do their jobs according to the Constitution, then the Judicial Branch need not flex their muscles.
Democrats do not like this when the court is ruling against them, meaning, in favor of what the Constitution states. You can bet they were all happy with the court ruling in favor of the Brandon admin on the remain in Mexico policy (I may not like the decision, but, it looks to be correct in Constitutional context). When they lose, Democracy Is In Peril! The Court is out of line!
The U.S. Supreme Court is also empowered by the frequent gridlock across the rest of the federal government. For example, Congress could pass a federal law guaranteeing access to abortion in the first trimester, which most Americans favor. Or Congress could pass laws giving the Environmental Protection Agency clearer authority to deal with climate change. Neither has happened.
And that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Big decisions need to be agreed on in order to not run roughshod on the minority. Because we have a Republic, you know this. Doesn’t matter. Leftists either have no idea How The Constitution Works, or, they do not care.
Do your job, write specific, targeted legislation. Congress writes the laws, Article 1 section 1, Executive enforces. Exec should not be empowered to do as the will.
— William Teach2 ??????? #refuseresist (@WTeach2) June 30, 2022
She wasn’t the only one. There are plenty of Democrats losing their minds.
Were the editors of The New York Times similarly distraught about the power of the Supreme Court when they overturned the laws of 49 states with the decision in Roe v Wade? Did they opine that the Court had taken too much power when the Supremes legalized same-sex ‘marriage’, overturning the laws in 46 states, some of which were passed as state constitutional amendments by the voters?
The Left is full of people with Borderline Personality Disorders.
There is nothing “borderline” about anything or anyone on the left. They are full blown communists/fascists out to destroy America and freedom everywhere. They hate themselves and everyone else. They have zero tolerance for the slightest disagreement in policy. They are black hearted baby killing homo loving perverts. They bitch about racism yet the entire top tier of their party is lily white and mostly male. They complain about income inequality yet the richest people in America and on earth are leftists and they have no intent of giving up their money. They want to kill your offspring but pay big bucks to get theirs into Harvard. They lecture us about climate change while flying all over in private jets even to their private “compounds” on their multi million dollar seaside properties. They cheat in elections and being unable to prove otherwise get their handmaidens in the press and the government to call a demonstration an insurrection in their usual projection of the truth and still refuse to audit the crooked election. Even when confronted with evidence they refuse to even consider allowing The People a chance to see the truth.
They are cheaters, liars, killers, and haters. There is nothing borderline about being a pervert loving, baby killing fascist. Whatever border there was is far in the rear view mirror for leftists.
FJB
The Right is full of people whose intellectual insecurities make them angry and authoritarian.
That best describes the Left and the current Administration.
Nixon proposed to Congress to establish the EPA and Congress agreed. Congress funds the EPA. Congress has neither the expertise nor the capacity to micromanage every policy of every federal agency. The courts can and do rule on whether the policies are within the bounds of the agency’s charge.
We hate to admit it but our courts are also political.
And no, references to abortion, airports, same-sex marriage, Nazis, contraception, interracial marriage, nuclear energy, cell phones, global warming, air quality, pornography, space stations, whites only, corporations, internet, stock markets, Jews, pandemics, ubiquitous security cameras, Medicare, enemy combatants, vaccines, KKK, machine guns, fentanyl, Muslims and Lizzo are not found in the Constitution. The founders of the nation, by and large wealthy white men, wisely foresaw that the world changes with time, and provided a solid framework for the nation, albeit with a method for modifying it. And Americans have modified the Constitution 27 times. Our Supreme Court is charged with interpreting our Constitution and must answer such difficult questions as does Americans’ right to privacy extend to contraception, marriage equality and abortion.
Is America a collection of mini nation-states, like Europe, or a united nation?
Can a state invent a law that violates the US Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution?