this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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You call him out on something that he has absolutely no control over, aside from solutions which would set dangerous precedent.
There is a mechanism for recalling corrupt judges. It requires a non-corrupt Congress. The founders never suspected that we’d be dumb enough to vote for half of Congress to be equally corrupt, but here we are.
The alternative of a president unilaterally removing seated judges, sets an absolutely disastrous precedent. And expanding the court would just be met with the courts growing in size every time control of the executive branch changes.
Better would be to reform how judges are seated and for how long. That would take a constitutional amendment. But at least we’d have a maximum end-date for some of the insanity, as long as we’d be smart about how. My opinion is that SCOTUS seats should be a 36-year appointment, with one judge nominated per presidential term. Special nominations (due to death/illness/treason/early retirement) would be for the remainder of that seats term only. The most tenured seat get replaced at the start of the next presidential term after ratification. Judges should be a long term - the intent of SCOTUS is to be outside of the sphere of political, industrial, or social influence as much as possible so they can focus directly on the intent of the law as written… and that’s difficult to do on a short term.
Playing it safe is the only option. Picking a candidate that sits any further left of Biden (which itself is not difficult) would only move more moderate voters towards Trump, and his base would be even more enraged. Picking someone more moderate than Biden would upset the far-left more and possibly keep them home on Election Day, with even more substantial damage done down-ballot as a result.
The game has to be played knowing that the other side is a way better cheater. They start out with votes that are more valuable and then make sure they carve out their voting districts to suppress any dissenting voice.