[YHAOS]

“The President, who exercises a limited power, may err without causing great mischief in the state. Congress may decide amiss without destroying the Union, because the electoral body in which Congress originates may cause it to retract its decisions by changing its members. But, if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent men or bad citizens, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.”

.....Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America, Volume I, First Part, Chap. VIII, pg 152

"I believe that the most erosive threat to modern American legal/judicial purism is the fact that the Constitution, more often than not, now accepts a back seat to the convoluted inverted pyramid known as case law."

It’s not just the Supreme Court, or all the Court system, which is composed of “bad citizens”; it is the whole of the legal profession. It is not that they (the legal profession) are cruel to their pets, indifferent to their spouses, abuse their children, are atrocious neighbors, ignore their civic duty, or fail to give alms. It is their attitude toward the Constitution, just as you say, that makes of them bad citizens. Lawyers from both sides of the bench, have ceased to regard the Constitution as a rock upon which is founded the justice due a free people. Lawyering has become little more than a exercise in constitutional deconstruction designed to further personal ambition by developing case law contrary to constitutional principles.

[yankeedame]

It’s not just the Supreme Court, or all the Court system, which is composed of “bad citizens”; it is the whole of the legal profession....It is their attitude toward the Constitution, just as you say, that makes of them bad citizens.
Call me a cynic or a student of human nature but IMHO what you've just written merely proves the ancient saying: "Opportunity makes a thief."
How so? Read on...

Lawyers from both sides of the bench, have ceased to regard the Constitution as a rock upon which is founded the justice due a free people.
And why have they (as a group) done this? Simple. B/c it no longer pays -- literally and figuratively -- to regard the Constitution as a rock upon which is founded the justice due a free people.

Lawyers have always been (in)famous for "massaging" the law, and in the past, say up to 40 years ago, this massaging failed more times than not (but succeeded just enough time to keep trying). But over time it succeeded more and more, then more times than not; and the payouts became bigger and bigger, with more and more lawyers noticing this. Until it came to a point where any lawyer who still follows the straight-and-narrow, and there are many unknown, unsung that do, was/is considered a patsy, a chump, a fool, or a loser.

As I said before: "Opportunity makes a thief." And if your average lawyer is quick to spot anything --it's an opportunity!