Thinking abut the Supreme Court...

[NowsTheTime]

We discuss expanding the court, and realize this may not be a good choice for various reasons like the other party then expands it more. But what is really wrong is it being a political body and it shouldn't be.

I'm not really knowledgeable as to what alternatives there might be (with the exception of passing new laws), I'm only asking in a semi ideal world how things should be.

In an ideal world, on might think that there would be a mandate requiring it to be as politically balanced as possible (I think it has proven to be impractical to assume all justices would not be politically biased and that they would not act on that bias).

From a practical point of view, Democrats have a problem right now. SCOTUS is ruling on the EPA, potentially giving excessive power to State legislatures in the presidential election, and maybe the FDA in the future,(not to mention overturning Roe), and all of these with strong political bias.

I'm only just thinking out loud, but this is really a fight and there will be little help from Republicans in making justice at least as blind as it theoretically could be.

[Bev54]

1. Decisions have to be made on whether they are just and right not on the fear of the other

side doing the same thing or worse. The other side will do it whether the dems do or not so let's not live in fear of the vile bullies.

[lastlib]

2. I have floated the idea of a National Court of Appeals....

Pack it with maybe 25 good young progressives, and give it most of the appeals that now go to SCOTUS. Leave SCOTUS with its constitutional original jurisdiction. Uncle Clarence can take as many naps as he wants, BeerBoy can drink all his beer and be drunk-stupid all the time (not sure how that'd be different from now....); and Justice Handmaiden can do whatever handmaidens do--mop floors, wash the robes, whatever.

[Polybius]

3. Not a bad idea, but it would cause massive outrage not seen since the Civil War

If the makeup is 25, and Biden appoints them all (and they are all liberal), then every conservative SC decision would be overturned. Every single one of them.

Either two things happen next:

1) The next Republican President appoints 50 conservatives on top of the 25.

2) Civil War II.