{"id":7186,"date":"2024-07-01T07:35:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T11:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=7186"},"modified":"2024-07-01T07:35:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T11:35:58","slug":"a-modest-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/a-modest-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"A Modest Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lost Faith<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve lost faith in the Supreme Court.  They used to be the final arbiter, who would do \u201cwhat\u2019s right\u201d for the American people and the law.  Sure, there were the \u201cbad\u201d decisions:  Dred Scott<\/em>, Plessy v Ferguson<\/em> and Korematsu, <\/em>for example. But the Court ultimately rectified them.  And even when the Court split down party lines in Bush v Gore<\/em> and determined who the President of the United States would be, it was easy to say that they had<\/strong> to make some call, or there would be no President at all.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now there\u2019s the actions of Justices Thomas and Alito, flaunting their immunity from codes of conduct and accepting millions of dollars in gifts. (It makes the behavior that caused Justice Abe Fortes to resign in the 1960’s; penny-ante.) And there\u2019s the \u201cdeconstruction\u201d of the administrative state by this Federalist Society majority, over-ruling the \u201cChevron\u201d case this week. Their actions make it clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0This Court has an ideological agenda, beyond and outside the law.\u00a0\u00a0It can be depended on to drive our Nation back to the \u201cbad old\u201d 1950\u2019s in every way imaginable. (Or, perhaps worse, forward to the \u201c2025 Project<\/a>\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0In the end, the \u201cRobert\u2019s Court\u201d will bear the same stain as the \u201cTaney Court\u201d of the 1850\u2019s; the one that took the wrong side before the Civil War.\u00a0\u00a0This Court (Justices Kagan, Jackson and Sotomayor excepted) is on the \u201closing side\u201d of the arc of the American moral universe bending towards justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perfidy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t get into the absolute lies that Justices Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch told in their Senate hearings.  They all pledged to pay respect to precedence, to the rule of \u201cstare decis\u201d. But, they clearly do not respect the past, unless \u201cstare decis\u201d only applies to laws passed prior to 1860.  Look out Sherman Anti-Trust Act, they\u2019re coming for you next! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it doesn\u2019t include the perfidy of Senator Mitch McConnell, who refused to allow President Obama\u2019s legal nominee for the Court to have a hearing, then rammed through President Trump\u2019s nominee in less than six weeks.\u00a0\u00a0Were McConnell\u2019s legislative machinations \u201clegal\u201d? Unfortunately, they were.\u00a0\u00a0But they were not in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution, or the \u201cnorms\u201d of American government and Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin Roosevelt had it right in the late 1930\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0The Court is stale, dominated by an ideologic legal theory that seeks to undo our modern world.\u00a0\u00a0And every Justice is appointed for life, with no Constitutional way to remove them or force retirement, short of death or behavior so egregious that two-thirds of the Senate would agree to convict on impeachment (something beyond possibility in our polarized age).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reform<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Federal Judges can take \u201csenior status\u201d, a form of working retirement, at sixty-five years of age with fifteen years of service.  And in the next year, we will have four Justices of the Supreme Court reach seventy.  They are appointed for life.  They can\u2019t be forced to quit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0But there is no Constitutionally assigned number of justices on the Court.\u00a0\u00a0Nine Justices is simply a \u201cnumber\u201d, set by statutory law.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That number has been both fewer and greater in the past (the precedent).\u00a0\u00a0So, the simple answer is this:\u00a0\u00a0for every Justice seventy or older, the current President can appoint an additional Justice to the Court.\u00a0\u00a0The number of nine Justices is just a law, a law that can be changed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If President Biden could do this \u2013 there would be four new Justices on the Court next year, four Justices to balance the Federalist cabal that is now altering our Nation; four Justices to reassert the modern American view of citizenship and personal rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0All it would take, is a majority of the House, a majority of the Senate (willing to break the filibuster rule), and the signature of the President.\u00a0\u00a0And for those who decry this idea as a \u201cpoliticization\u201d of the Court, that ship already sailed.\u00a0\u00a0It sailed when McConnell pulled his shenanigans, denying Garland a hearing, then rammed Barrett through.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s time for Democrats to \u201cante up\u201d, and get in the \u201cSupreme Court\u201d game.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s not a new idea \u2013 checkout the \u201cJudicial Reform Act of 1937<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 2025, we deserve a \u201cNew Judicial Deal\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just one more reason that the election of 2024 is so important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lost Faith I\u2019ve lost faith in the Supreme Court.  They used to be the final arbiter, who would do \u201cwhat\u2019s right\u201d for the American people and the law.  Sure, there were the \u201cbad\u201d decisions:  Dred Scott, Plessy v Ferguson and Korematsu, for example. But the Court ultimately rectified them.  And even when the Court split down party lines in Bush v Gore and determined who … Continue reading “A Modest Proposal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Modest Proposal : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/a-modest-proposal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Modest Proposal : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lost Faith I\u2019ve lost faith in the Supreme Court.  They used to be the final arbiter, who would do \u201cwhat\u2019s right\u201d for the American people and the law.  Sure, there were the \u201cbad\u201d decisions:  Dred Scott, Plessy v Ferguson and Korematsu, for example. But the Court ultimately rectified them.  And even when the Court split down party lines in Bush v Gore and determined who … Continue reading "A Modest Proposal"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/a-modest-proposal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-01T11:35:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-01T11:35:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/01\\\/a-modest-proposal\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/01\\\/a-modest-proposal\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marty Dahlman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"headline\":\"A Modest Proposal\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-01T11:35:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-01T11:35:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/01\\\/a-modest-proposal\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":754,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/01\\\/a-modest-proposal\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/01\\\/a-modest-proposal\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/01\\\/a-modest-proposal\\\/\",\"name\":\"A Modest Proposal : Our America - 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