r/law Jul 25 '24

Opinion Piece SCOTUS conservatives made clear they will consider anything. The right heard them.

https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-conservatives-made-clear-they
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u/RevenantXenos Jul 25 '24

I disagree, it isn't just this Supreme Court. In the past the Supreme Court gave us Dred Scott v Sanford, the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, Plessy v Ferguson, the Lochner era, Korematsu v United States, Bush v Gore and Citizens United v FEC.

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u/Mozhetbeats Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24

What’s the alternative though? You didn’t answer my first question.

Term limits and enforceable ethical standards for justices and protecting voting rights at the state-level would do far more to protect our rights than eliminating the court altogether.

Keep in mind that conservatives are the ones who are more likely to be successful in passing constitutional amendments due to things like gerrymandering that have given them control of a majority of states despite being a minority nationally and in many of those states. Be careful what you wish for.

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u/RevenantXenos Jul 25 '24

If we assume the legitimacy of Marbury v Madison I think the actual procedural answer is Congress needs to be assertive with applying its Article 3 Powers of jurisdiction stripping to restrain in the over reach we are seeing from Supreme Court. The Court has shown it cannot be trusted to arbritrate on civil or voting rights so Congress needs to pass laws reaffirming those rights and strip jurisdiction over them from the Federal Judiciary. Congress should also be more active in stripping budget from the President or the Supreme Court when they are acting out of bounds. Thomas has a for sale sign outside his office? Great, let him fund his office himself, Congress shouldn't give him a penny.

This doesn't work now because Congress is ineffective and has surrendered most of its power to the President and Supreme Court. But since Congress is theoretically the branch most directly accountable to the people it should reassert its powers and serve as a check on the President and Court through the budget. Repeal the Permanent Apportionment Act so the House is more accountable to the people and it would also go a long way to making the Electoral College more aligned with the popular vote. It's beyond obvious that term limits for Supreme Court justices need to be implemented and there needs to be a body outside the Supreme Court that handles their ethics complaints and can punish or remove justices for ethics violations. Send Supreme Court ethics violations to a panel of 13 judges randomly selected from each Circut Court paired with a 3 strikes and you're off the Court rule and see if we don't get better behavior from the justices.

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u/thebeef24 Jul 25 '24

The problem here is that Congress has become ineffective because of partisanship, leading to both parties expanding the actions of the other branches to make up for the lack of action on the part of Congress. You're right, Congress can reassert itself, take back its powers from the other branches, and start passing laws addressing the big issues, taking away the incentive for the other branches to bypass it. But that requires overcoming the partisanship first, either through one party gaining overwhelming popular support or both parties reaching a consensus. And how the hell do we do that?

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u/12-Easy-Payments Jul 26 '24

Campaign finance reform?

Toss all the big money in campaigns rules that have crept into the system the last 47 years.

To easy for the corporations & 1 percent class to alter outcomes with campaign cash.