We’re missing the problem. Since when did “we the people” give the Supreme Court so much power?
WASHINGTON - Ted Cruz has long proposed, as part of his presidential campaign, ending lifetime tenure for all Supreme Court justices.
Cruz proposed a constitutional amendment last June after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Affordable Care Act and legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, saying the court had become a source of "judicial tyranny."
Such ideas are likely to become a prominent part of the presidential campaign now that Justice Antonin Scalia has died, leaving a vacancy on the court during an election year.
"The court's hubris and thirst for power have reached unprecedented levels," wrote Cruz in the National Review [June 26, 2015], quoting Scalia multiple times. "And that calls for meaningful action, lest Congress be guilty of acquiescing to this assault on the rule of law."
Supreme Court justices currently serve for life after they are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, in part to shield them from popular opinion and to allow the judiciary to act as a check on other branches of government.
Cruz would require justices to appear on the ballot for retention elections every eight years "beginning with the second national election after his or her appointment," he wrote. If any justice failed to win both a majority of all voters and majorities in at least 25 states, the proposal would have stripped them of their seat and barred them from future Supreme Court terms.
The proposal was criticized from both sides of the aisle for its potential to politicize the bench, including within a Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Cruz.".....