Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump have thrown the Supreme Court totally out of balance.

[kentuck]

Indeed, they are more like another legislative body. They have become power-drunk with their politics. It is a dangerous predicament for American democracy.

What should be done?

There are many arguments against expanding the Court, including that of President Joe Biden. But something needs to be done.

There was a time when the Chief Justice could protect the minority. However, with the present 6/3 majority, his vote is of little concern. The Court is stacked, even against the Chief Justice.

In my opinion, the Court is not legitimate at this time. It needs some sort of balance, without trying to achieve a political majority. They should try to give power back to the Chief Justice.

It is my theory that the addition of one more Justice would help to correct the course. Instead of a 6/3 or 5/4 vote, the Chief Justice could cast the tie-vote, which would send it back to the lower court decision.

This would NOT give the Supreme Court back to the Democrats. However, it would give some power back to Chief Justice Roberts. It would take away some power from the radical religious Justices now in power.

The addition of one Justice could not be argued as giving power to the Democrats. It absolutely does not. The conservatives would still maintain a 6/4 majority. Only the vote of the Chief Justice could create a tie vote.

But, at the present time, that would be better than nothing.

If that did not correct the imbalance, they could think of adding more Justices to balance the political drift the Court has now taken. But at the present time, they should add one more Justice and give some power back to the Chief Justice.

Retirement or death could resolve the problem, but the problem is now.

[Bettie]

1. One thing that might help

would be for there to be ethics rules imposed on them.

Right now, they have ZERO curbs on their behavior.

But, we also need to expand the court. It is vitally important.

[kentuck]

2. Definitely.

They need a code of ethics, like every other court.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Our foes don't speak of balance

They're intent on total domination. Perhaps we should plan accordingly.

[jimfields33]

7. Are you kidding? When the court was more liberal they used to scream how unfair it was

Remember when gay marriage passed, you’d thought the world ended. They definitely thought the court was to political then.

[C_U_L8R]

8. They definitely weren't speaking about balance then either :-)

[milestogo]

4. We would need to add two justices

I think there has to be an "odd" number to prevent ties.

[kentuck]

5. Two more Justices would still be a 6/5 majority for the conservatives.

And less politically feasible, in my opinion.

We should not start a race to see who can add the most justices to the Court. We should try to correct the present imbalance, in my opinion.

[Bettie]

10. Or we enough to

allow more cases to be heard, since our population is much larger than it was when the number was set.

Having two or three 7 or 9 judge panels, randomly chosen for cases would make it much harder for lawyers to tailor an argument to a specific justice as well.

It would also allow justices to simply not be seated on cases where there might be a conflict of interest.

[Botany]

6. The court has been "out of balance" for years and has been getting worse for years

When you had 3 different women none of whom knew each other in D.C. ready to testify
that Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed them in a manner like Ms. Hill had said and the
Senate Judiciary Committee refused to hear them.

In 2000 when the SCOTUS knowingly gave Florida to the loser of the election by saying that
counting the vote would be illegal .... Sandra Day O'Conner knew she was fucking America
because she ruled that the Supreme Court's ruling in bush v Gore couldn't be used as case
law in any judicial rulings in the future.

bush v Gore gave us Justices Roberts & Alito and Citizens United which has allowed dark money into
politics and un-American groups like The Judicial Crisis Network.

When Mitch McConnell stopped President Obama from his Constitutionally given power in
EVEN GETTING HIS SUPREME COURT PICK A HEARING

When Russia installed D. Trump as POTUS and he got to put 3 Christo Fascists on the court.

The republicans know they are an ever shrinking minority so they need to pack the court, gerrymander
districts, rat fuck elections, control the media, and fuck with legally elected POTUS type people such as
they are now trying to do to Biden .... .... fossil fuel companies jack up gas prices to drive inflation
which they will blame Biden for.

The Supreme Court now is a Christo Fascist arm of the right. Which is trying to kill America's democracy,
women's rights, and now the planet's supportive capacity for humans.

[JHB]

9. Don't lose sight of the real issue when focusing on "balance"

The issue is the conservative campaign, starting under Reagan, to flood the courts with conservative operatives. The goal was to reverse everyting "liberal" courts had decided, from from the rights decisions of the 50s, 60s, and 70s back to decisions from before WW2 that ruled New Deal programs constitutional, that allowed for effective labor laws and any sort of regulation.

Frankly, it's the sort of takeover their conservative ancestors in the 19 teens and 20s and 30s described communist operatives doing. And there's always been a portion of Movement Conservatives who had a sneaking admiration for the Bolsheviks, and their ability to have a small extreme faction take total power by determination and sheer ruthlessness.