The Republicans and their various political warriors masquerading as legalists (the Federalist Society, Judicial Crisis Network, etc.) chose to make the SCOTUS and the overall federal judiciary a political and partisan institution. The Democrats simply need to build the political case of taking steps to restore SCOTUS and judiciary as legal bodies exclusively and therefore must expand the number of seats throughout the judiciary and especially on the Supreme Court.
I still don't understand why the Democrats are not playing hardball here. They should boycott the entire confirmation process. They should refuse to meet with the nominee. They should refuse to show up for hearings. The whole thing is just a dog-and-pony show for the GOP where they get to pretend they are upholding some kind of sacred duty. Refuse to participate! And if they get in a position to, expand the Supreme Court and don't be apologetic about it in the slightest.
Elie Mystal has written extensively about the benefits of a much larger SCOTUS, which would 1) be far more representative of the changing demographics of the country, and 2) if large enough, would more closely resemble appellate courts, where 3-judge decisions are standard unless an en banc hearing is necessitated. In this case, partisan judicial activism is reduced by the arbitrary choice of judges for any given case. We must push to have progressive SCOTUS experts like Mr. Mystal flood the airwaves to explain why judicial expansion is far more democratic than the current norm, and to rebut the badly uninformed MSM which seems incapable of a nuanced discussion about the heart of democracy.
Excellent piece. I'd like to see President Biden appoint Mr. Obama and Mr. Garland to the Supreme Court as soon as the new Senate has a Democratic Leader and whatever has to be done by Congress to have 11 members of the Supreme Court.
The Republicans and their various political warriors masquerading as legalists (the Federalist Society, Judicial Crisis Network, etc.) chose to make the SCOTUS and the overall federal judiciary a political and partisan institution. The Democrats simply need to build the political case of taking steps to restore SCOTUS and judiciary as legal bodies exclusively and therefore must expand the number of seats throughout the judiciary and especially on the Supreme Court.
I still don't understand why the Democrats are not playing hardball here. They should boycott the entire confirmation process. They should refuse to meet with the nominee. They should refuse to show up for hearings. The whole thing is just a dog-and-pony show for the GOP where they get to pretend they are upholding some kind of sacred duty. Refuse to participate! And if they get in a position to, expand the Supreme Court and don't be apologetic about it in the slightest.
Elie Mystal has written extensively about the benefits of a much larger SCOTUS, which would 1) be far more representative of the changing demographics of the country, and 2) if large enough, would more closely resemble appellate courts, where 3-judge decisions are standard unless an en banc hearing is necessitated. In this case, partisan judicial activism is reduced by the arbitrary choice of judges for any given case. We must push to have progressive SCOTUS experts like Mr. Mystal flood the airwaves to explain why judicial expansion is far more democratic than the current norm, and to rebut the badly uninformed MSM which seems incapable of a nuanced discussion about the heart of democracy.
Excellent piece. I'd like to see President Biden appoint Mr. Obama and Mr. Garland to the Supreme Court as soon as the new Senate has a Democratic Leader and whatever has to be done by Congress to have 11 members of the Supreme Court.