Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the Judicial Branch, leaves Congress significant discretion to determine the shape and structure of the federal judiciary. Article III, Section I states that “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Although the Constitution establishes the Supreme Court, it permits Congress to decide how to organize it.

Seems pretty simple right? The Legislative Branch writes the Laws, and the Executive enacts those laws and the Judicial enforces those laws. A pretty basic structure that has seemed to work for over 200 years but recently the Judicial Branch which is supposed to be nonpartisan and just call balls and strikes has turned into a system that only works for the monied elite.

The Judicial is supposed to interpret the Constitution and based on that document rule on cases that come before them. Not a biblical doctrine or any other personally held belief structure only using their interpretation of a document that was drafted in 1789 and subsequently amended over the past 234 years. That seems like a daunting task and courts in the past have made mistakes and later adjusted their opinions to bring that flawed judgment into a more reasonable perspective. The decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka on May 17, 1954 is perhaps the most famous of all Supreme Court cases, as it started the process ending segregation. It overturned the equally far-reaching decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. So, the court gave a right back that had been taken away and that is how the process should work.

This current Court did just the opposite based on their own theological belief system overturning Roe vs Wade decision pushing women’s rights back 50 years. My opinion is that that ruling was not rooted in the constitution but several Justices personal and antiquate religious dogma. This court is doing the same with equal protection of other groups based purely on that misguided theological belief system, or just because they think its oogy. I am talking about LGTBQ+ rights.

A common misconception that the mostly Republican are spewing is that the number of Justices is a fixed number not to be changed although in 2015 Mitch McConnel arbitrarily reduced the size of the court be disallowing President Obama his constitutional duty to fill a vacated seat cause by the death of Justice Scalia. McConnel’s actions in 2015 were reminiscent to the Judiciary Act of 1789 established the first Supreme Court, with six Justices. In 1801, President John Adams and a lame-duck Federalist Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which reduced the Court to five Justices in an attempt to limit incoming President Thomas Jefferson’s appointments. The original court had 6 justices appointed by George Washington. The Constitution does not stipulate the number of Supreme Court Justices; the number is set instead by Congress. There have been as few as six, but since 1869 there have been nine Justices, including one Chief Justice.

The last time the court changed from 10 to 9 justices was when the country had 9 federal court districts and each Supreme oversaw one of the Districts that was in 1869 and there were only 37 states. It is now 2023 we have had 50 states since 1959, 90 years after the last time the court was changed. Now we have 13 Federal Courts but still only Supremes, this to me says it is time to expand the court.

I also have an issue with lifetime appointments, I know that is what the Constitution states but there has to be a way around that. I think the Supreme Court should be a rolling bench that Justices sit on for 18 years and then they can go back to a district court. There would have to be a system that each newly elected President can appoint a certain number of justices and not have to depend on retirement or death of a sitting Justice.

I know this a conspiratorial and morbid thought but imagine Trump or someone worse getting to seat the entire court because of some ‘random’ act that takes out the entire court. In so doing this despot seats 9 Federalist Society judges that are all in their 30’s with little to no judicial experience. These jurors would have lifetime appointments which would mean they could redefine the court and federal law for generations. Don’t think it could happen Trumps last appointment is 49 years old only had clerkships and private practice. Barrett spent two years as a judicial law clerk after law school, first for judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 1998, and then for justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1998 to 1999. Zero judicial experience and has a seat on the highest court in the country and could potentially be there for the next 30 plus years.

It is time for some traditions to change.