A scholar of the Supreme Court and its relationship to the people of the United States says that President Joe Biden’s proposed term limits for justices can restore the court’s eroded legitimacy.
The issue for the United States is that the system was designed from the start to guarantee unending political gridlock. Then SCOTUS is the only pressure relief valve to allow legal changes to take place. Thus it has become the focal point for all political energy.
No system can produce an independent court when all of the population is intensely focused on that court as an outlet for political change.
Yes, I’ve argued elsewhere that the Americans need to relearn federalism. Canada, Switzerland, the EU, all have more modern and better functioning federal or federal-like institutions (with their own problems of course, but nowhere near as broken as in the US). Hell, India has a mandatory retirement age for supreme court justices.
The issue for the United States is that the system was designed from the start to guarantee unending political gridlock. Then SCOTUS is the only pressure relief valve to allow legal changes to take place. Thus it has become the focal point for all political energy.
No system can produce an independent court when all of the population is intensely focused on that court as an outlet for political change.
Yes, I’ve argued elsewhere that the Americans need to relearn federalism. Canada, Switzerland, the EU, all have more modern and better functioning federal or federal-like institutions (with their own problems of course, but nowhere near as broken as in the US). Hell, India has a mandatory retirement age for supreme court justices.