Dateline June 30, 2023: With the two latest decisions of America’s “highest” court, it is clear that there is a TINY, extremely wealthy, minority of America’s total population of 320+ million people, who wish to return America’s peoples to a state of serfdom, under the control of this tiny minority.
My first comment is that SCOTUS is NOT independent. The six so-called “conservative” justices on the Court, should rather be referred to as “reactionaries”. Instead of showing that they value the best interests and advancement of the vast MAJORITY of America’s population, that have been acting to REMOVE hard-won freedoms.
Two laws passed by this reactionary Court ( Dobbs and yesterday’s Lorie Smith decision), are in flagrant violation of the “Freedom of Religion” clause of the First Amendment. These laws impose the most stringent dogma of one specific branch of Christianity onto the entire population, regardless of any individual’s personal observances.
The “SIX” show allegiance, not to The Constitution but to the Federal Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, now referred to as the “Federalist Society”, which was established in 1982 by a small group of disaffected conservative law students, into an organization with extraordinary influence over American law and politics(*). Currently, this group is led by Leonard Leo, who uses his war-chest of, reportedly, $1.6 BILLION dollars (DOUBLE the “Fox” settlement amount), to place judges and lawyers throughout the country.
Note that the following are current or former members of this group: The late Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, plus the “Trump three”: Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. (Even the Trump White House counsel, Don McGahn was reportedly a member). Chief Justice John Roberts served as a member of the steering committee of the Washington, D.C. chapter, but denies ever being a member, although he apparently thinks “their” way.
The Constitution states that there must be a Supreme Court, but does not state how many justices there should be. It is reported that the country’s approval of the current Supreme Court has fallen to its lowest level EVER. Apart from recent decisions that have been, at the very least, unpopular, at least three of the justices appear to have benefited by bribes. They have no place on the Court.
There have been suggestions that the Biden administration should expand the court by four members, to produce a bare liberal majority. In my opinion, this is not a good suggestion. It does not augur well for the future, since in the future, a non-liberal administration would do likewise, and eventually, we might see a Supreme Court of 301 members!
My suggestion is to turn to an ancient example of a successful (and admired) court. In future, the justices for the Supreme Court should be chosen, not by the then-existing administration, but by a Great Sanhedrin of (yes) 71 nonpartisan, universally-respected jurists. The Supreme court itself should be composed of (as in a Grand Jury) 23 justices. Thus, in any decision, there would be at least a majority of 12 “Good Persons and True”. This would be a Court that would make judgements based on the Public Good of the majority of the American people. On, say, an annual basis, an evaluation of the 23 should take place, run by the Great Sanhedrin. Anyone who made a biased decision should be removed from the Court, permanently, and replaced by another who would not be easily swayed from the ideal of “Public Good”.
Of course, NO-ONE recommended by the Federalist Society should EVER be placed on the Court, again.
(*) One of those original members was Theodore (Ted) Olson, who argued Citizen’s United before the Supreme Court. At that time, both Scalia and Thomas attended a barbecue at Olson’s estate. Their votes should have been inadmissible!