Shit article, padded out with definintions of basic concepts.
Also, Pete’s ideas will do nothing to eliminate the corruption in the court, and the balanced court idea will lock in partisan obstruction, rather than eliminating it. Why should a party that fails to win a majority in an election have any influence at all on which judges get picked? And the idea that the justices themselves could veto some of the appointments is ridiculous. It’s not a fucking private club.
And term limits are a bad idea, unless there are provisions to prevent termed-out justices from getting paid off after they leave office, with phony jobs (such as non-executive directorships or gigs at think tanks), inflated lecture fees, etc. No revolving door. These reforms should also apply to all federal judges.
Better regulations would be: mandatory disclosure of all outside income, and limits on its amount. Failure to disclose income, including gifts, within a defined, short time period should be a felony. There should be a requirement that financial assets be put into a blind trust. Conflict of interest laws should include spouses and immediate family members. Random assignment of cases to justices, the randomness provided by an independent body not answerable to the court. A set of mandatory recusal criteria defined by law, with heavy penalties for non-compliance. Elimination of the shadow docket. There should be a non-partisan commission that establishes qualifications for judges, and appointment of a judge found unfit by the commission can only be overridden with 2/3 majority in the Senate.
We really shouldn’t have appointees from freaking Reagan still on the courts. They proposed 1 term 18 years, which sounds fine ( rounded it up to 20 in my head). That’s an entire generation of service that can’t be ousted by the electorate nor representatives (unless convicted).
Why not add some post term conditions to prevent SCOTUS from being a jumping off point to “consulting”? I’m fine with that.
I like your ideas too, but
Random assignment of cases to justices, the randomness provided by an independent body not answerable to the court.
How do we begin to enforce that kind of concept? Just make the federal courts assign cases to justices and put them under the same rules as SCOTUS. If one federal judge seems to be assigning cases to the same few judges that be grounds for audit.
Shit article, padded out with definintions of basic concepts.
Also, Pete’s ideas will do nothing to eliminate the corruption in the court, and the balanced court idea will lock in partisan obstruction, rather than eliminating it. Why should a party that fails to win a majority in an election have any influence at all on which judges get picked? And the idea that the justices themselves could veto some of the appointments is ridiculous. It’s not a fucking private club.
And term limits are a bad idea, unless there are provisions to prevent termed-out justices from getting paid off after they leave office, with phony jobs (such as non-executive directorships or gigs at think tanks), inflated lecture fees, etc. No revolving door. These reforms should also apply to all federal judges.
Better regulations would be: mandatory disclosure of all outside income, and limits on its amount. Failure to disclose income, including gifts, within a defined, short time period should be a felony. There should be a requirement that financial assets be put into a blind trust. Conflict of interest laws should include spouses and immediate family members. Random assignment of cases to justices, the randomness provided by an independent body not answerable to the court. A set of mandatory recusal criteria defined by law, with heavy penalties for non-compliance. Elimination of the shadow docket. There should be a non-partisan commission that establishes qualifications for judges, and appointment of a judge found unfit by the commission can only be overridden with 2/3 majority in the Senate.
We really shouldn’t have appointees from freaking Reagan still on the courts. They proposed 1 term 18 years, which sounds fine ( rounded it up to 20 in my head). That’s an entire generation of service that can’t be ousted by the electorate nor representatives (unless convicted).
Why not add some post term conditions to prevent SCOTUS from being a jumping off point to “consulting”? I’m fine with that.
I like your ideas too, but
How do we begin to enforce that kind of concept? Just make the federal courts assign cases to justices and put them under the same rules as SCOTUS. If one federal judge seems to be assigning cases to the same few judges that be grounds for audit.