Replies

goldstategop writes:
Remember this: judges are accountable to no one. If the matter of constitutional interpretation is left to legislators and the people disagree with their interpretation, the legislators can be voted out of office. There is no way to hold activist judges with a lifetime tenure accountable except through impeachment and that is not a real solution to the problem at hand.

Which is why we need to do two things:
1. Repeal lifetime tenure for _all_ federal judges
2. Establish term limits for _all_ federal judges (the "term" would be somewhat longer than for elected positions, say, perhaps, 10 years for the first term, after which they could be re-nominated and re-confirmed for 10 more).
Of course, both changes could only be achieved through a Constitutional amendment.

As you stated, impeachment isn't a "real solution". Term limits for judges _is_ such a solution.

I, too, think it's time for a Constitutional amendment that limits the power of judicial review - if not totally, then to give the Congress the power to invalidate decisions of the Supreme Court via supermajority votes.

Neither of these amendments is going to pass anytime soon (sigh).

Cheers!
- John

10 years sounds to me a reasonable approach to depoliticizing the judiciary. No one else in our democracy has lifetime tenure. State judges certainly do not have it. And we should give voters the ability to recall judges who do not act in a manner befitting their office. Remember Rose Bird in California and her gang repeatedly striking down the state's death penalty law? There's an approach that works.

And of course we need to restore the separation of powers by ending the ability of judges to act as Super Legislators through abolishing judicial review. As you mentioned, neither event is going to happen in the near future. But if we want to save our country, make no mistake about it, the judiciary will have to be firmly curbed.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)