• ccunning@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    …if a sane court is built around them by leaders with enough spine

    Lack of spine isn’t the issue. It’s lack of political power.

    And even then what would the new court do? If they go back to operating the way they did before this judicial coup, that wouldn’t actually fix any of the damage done. Or remove the traitor sitting on the SCOTUS.

    • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      A court with more judges would water down the influence of any extremists.

      But yes, packing the court alone doesn’t guaruntee the court can’t be captured again. What Elie Mystal suggested way back when the court majority had flipped was basically two things that should happen:

      1. expand the court by alot, maybe somewhere within 20-30, similar to the 9th circuit that’s just below the Supreme Court. This helps dilute the power of individual crazies like Alito and then

      2. Rotate judges out routinely to other federal positions. This allows for their life-time appointment still, but ensures also that, due to the high number of justices, every administration is getting an opportunity to appoint a few judges every time. That revolving door means it wpuld require multiple far-right administrations to pin the court down like it is now.

      There’s no reason the court needs to be nine justices, we’ve had more and less throughout our history as a nation, and there’s no reason that the courts power needs to be concentrated into the hands of so few individuals, since the purpose of the court is suppose to be a moderating force of legal scholars, not an explicitly partisan body.

      • ccunning@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        None of this addresses my point. There isn’t the political power to do it.

        And even if there was, the court has already essentially overturned precedent as a concept. That can’t just be rolled back without completely reworking the court, which…see my first point…

        • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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          4 months ago

          There isn’t the political power to do it.

          That’s the entire problem, full stop. This wouldn’t even have gotten to SCOTUS if Congress would have held POTUS accountable via impeachment. The reason Congress didn’t is partially due to political pressure from voters but mostly because the HoR is far too small to adequately represent 300,000,000 people.

        • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yes, it depends up getting people out to vote, especially in mid-terms.

          Precedent is literally just a tradition that’s agreed upon, there’s nothing binding judges to adhere to it, which is why the supreme court was so easily able to ignore it.

          So in that sense it’s a double-edged sword, it’s just as easy for judges to rule by precedent as it is for them to not, it’s always been this way.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Lack of spine isn’t the issue. It’s lack of political power.

      The court literally just gave Biden the power.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        No, they get to decide what an official act is. So the only way this works out is Biden 66ing the extremist judges and the remaining vote that it was an official act. They get to decide what official acts are. So everyone Rubepublican has free reign and every democrat is boxed in.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          So the only way this works out is Biden 66ing the extremist judges and the remaining vote that it was an official act.

          Yep, that’s what I said: the court literally just gave Biden the power to do that.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            But, he could do anything else and they’d rule it as unofficial as long as they breathe

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              …as long as they breathe

              True, but they wouldn’t be anymore, in this hypothetical scenario. I’m not sure why we’re belaboring that point.

              • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                The devil is in the details. If he just goes all willy nilly and not at the right people he wastes his opportunity. You can’t assassinate Trump as official because they wouldn’t deem it so. It matters because it means the only choice he is left with is to official order the extremists on the SC.