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Hey Kids, Watch Me Fix SCOTUS!!! [1]

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Date: 2024-06-21  

I’ve been thinking, SCOTUS clearly has issues that require addressing. I’m not going to get into corruption issues here, I’m actually considering improvements to the institution itself. Clearly, my suggestions would require a constitutional change, but here are my thoughts anyway.

First, Supreme Court Expansion.

Each US Circuit Court should be represented on SCOTUS, that would expand the court from the current nine to thirteen seats. It seems to me this would be a logical modification to the current structure of the court. Some will say, “Oh great! That will allow Biden to pack the court!” Um, not really. I’ll get to that later.

Second, Term Limits.

We eliminate lifetime appointments to SCOTUS, replacing that with staggered eight-year terms. Waiting for a Justice to die to replace them calcifies the court, making the Justice the focus, rather than the work of the court itself. The Justices are there to do a job, not become statues.

Third. Appointment to SCOTUS reimagined.

Currently POTUS nominates his selection to SCOTUS and the Senate votes on it. Prior to Mitch McConnell, the Senate would generally accept POTUS’s nominee without much drama (Okay, there have been a few exceptions, like Bork). and the Senate vote was a formality, but that tradition ended with Merrick Garland, who wasn’t even permitted a vote. I would approach SCOTUS appointments in a different way. Each SCOTUS seat would be filled with a justice from the associated Circuit Court pool randomly. Let’s remember, Circuit Court Justices are already nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, so the Justice pool is vetted. When a SCOTUS Justice termed out, their replacement would be randomly selected from the pool of Justices in the seat’s associated circuit court — perhaps via the lottery number selection with numbered balls. The Circuit Court Justices would still be lifetime appointments, so the retiring SCOTUS judge would just return to a seat on their circuit but would be ineligible to serve on SCOTUS again. The power of this method of SCOTUS Justice selection is each circuit would be a composite of Justices nominated and confirmed over numerous Presidential Administrations. Random selection reduces the likelihood of any particular political ideology dominating, and the rollover of Justices internally would disarm any outside interest group, like the Federalist Society, from ideologically stacking the court.

My plan is likely unfeasible, but I think it would lead to a more dynamic, less fossilized court, and the constant turnover of thirteen justices within a limited term would focus the members of SCOTUS on the law as opposed to outside donor distractions.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/6/21/2247843/-Hey-Kids-Watch-Me-Fix-SCOTUS

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