Posted on 07/03/2015 5:22:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Right found itself thoroughly defeated at the Supreme Court earlier this month, and Senator Ted Cruz offered one of the biggest and boldest proposals in response: Force Supreme Court justices to run for reelection every eight years.
I am proposing an amendment to the United States Constitution that would subject the justices of the Supreme Court to periodic judicial-retention elections, Cruz wrote in an NR piece last week. Every justice, beginning with the second national election after his or her appointment, will answer to the American people and the states in a retention election every eight years. Those justices deemed unfit for retention by both a majority of the American people as a whole and by majorities of the electorates in at least half of the 50 states will be removed from office and disqualified from future service on the Court.
The specific details of the proposal remain unresolved, and theyre important: Would current Supreme Court justices get grandfathered in and be exempt from the retention elections? Is a national election a presidential election or a midterm election? What if a judge has a majority but that majority comes from running up high margins in fewer than 25 states? How quickly would a rejected judge need to resign?
Most important of all, at a time when Republicans find winning 270 electoral votes in a presidential race challenging, how could conservatives be sure that the justices they prefer Scalia, Thomas, Alito would be retained under this proposal?
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Personally I don’t trust the people to vote wisely but I might like to see the state legislatures vote on them.
I am so proud of Ted..
This is a MAN with a back bone..
To be fair, that's largely a product of states with winner-takes-all policies, which is not really an accurate representation. I like the idea of proportional division, winner gets the extra two "senate" electoral votes.
Popular elected senators has worked so well, let have justices also open the purse strings in Washington.
Since they are not resolved, there is plenty of time to hash them out, including setting an age/time limit on ALL federal judges. No more than 16 years tenure or 75 years of age, whichever comes first.
NO MORE LIFE TIME JUDGES.
Roberts was compromised as we can see by his rescent voting record. They need to be answerable someone because they can no longer be trusted
Ok, so let’s start with consequences. You wake up on the day after the election and discover that six of the judges have been voted out. Wanna guess what topic number one in the Senate will be for the next six months, along with the White House? Can you imagine the amount of pressure now on the President to select the replacement crew? Picking two or three really poor choices as the President might (even a Republican guy) would then trigger the biggest problem for him to win a re-election episode. You could lose on re-election just because you screwed up and selected two losers out of the replacement crew.
Not to say change is a bad thing...but making this into some election deal...I think...is a lousy choice.
I would agree...once installed, no court judge (at any federal level) should stay more than ten years. Maybe that’s the simplest way of fixing this mess.
The only problem with Ted Cruz’s proposal is this -— if we encountered an election like 2006 or 2008, we could possibly end up with 8 or 9 justices like Ruth Ginsberg for 8 years or more.
I like the idea of having state legislatures vote in SCOTUS elections the way senators are supposed to be elected.
In all due respect to Mr. Cruz, lawyers (and one local judge) tell me that the best way to counter judicial activism is to publically embarrass them in the press and on the air waves. And not just for one day either.
Justices at all levels are sensitive to public opinion, even though it is supposed to be just the opposite. But the higher levels they attain, the more sensitive they are.
Blast them publically. Ridicule. Embarrass. Mock. Use the Constitution itself as the weapon of choice. The effects are immediate and powerful. Challenge the NY Times fall all over themselves trying to argue against the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Voting may not be a dependable means to straightening out the court. Even with thoughtful voting, too much damage can be done in eight years.
First I wouldn’t vote on them all at once. Maybe 2 per year starting with the longest serving justices and again, let the state legislatures do the voting since the SCOTUS likes to overrule the states so much.
> Roberts was compromised as we can see by his rescent voting record.
While that’s possible, the simpler answer is that he’s a liberal voting exactly the way he wants. Unfortunately we’ve been duped again.
That is my thought also.
There is too much of the American public that are idiots who prefer to watch reality TV, vacuous entertainment and exist in a world of social media, media and entertainment hype and self-gratification. They are packed like rats in urban areas and their view of the world is only that same smugness they pass between themselves. Cloistered like mushrooms and feeding only on their same BS.
Let the state legislatures vote on the Justices is my preference.
That was my suggestion to Ted Cruz on twitter.
The SCOTUS has increasingly overruled the will of the people of the states and the will of the states themselves. I’m sure most state legislatures would like to regain at least some of their control.
It hasn’t worked because it hasn’t been tried. Not even close - not the way I’m suggesting.
It needs to be forceful, Constitutionally accurate, and persistent. Day in and day out, for weeks if not months.
How about a twist on the proposal: a nominee to the SCOTUS is selected by a majority of the states supreme courts and confirmed by a majority of the states legistures. Then on presentation of articles of impeachment by a majority of the state governors, they could be impeached by a majority vote of the 50 state legislatures. This would ensure the are independent of the other 2 branches of the federal government, but answerable to the states, not the cronies of DC politics.
Cruz and Trump are saying things that just plain need to be said. I don’t know if electing the supreme justices every 8 years is a good idea, but something needs to be done to reign them in. Now there is impeachment, but our GOPe led side of the Uniparty will never ever in a million years even think of it.
I like the idea of the justices as well as our senators being elected by state legislatures. This puts the power back to the states and weaken the federal government.
Right now our senators do not represent the people or the states, they represent their political parties and those with deep pockets. There is something similar amiss with the Supreme Court.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.