I've got an idea for you.
Generally speaking, there is a lot of misinformation about how sturdy the republican grip on the courts is. In truth, the courts have neither the purse nor the sword, they are easily pushed back by the other two branches if they overstep. Only the veneer of neutrality gives them any power at all, and that veneer is almost gone at this point. So, here’s a step by step guide to fixing the courts requiring only the passage of laws, many of them probably not very controversial.
First of all, the constitution says judges serve “in good behavior”, which judges themselves have interpreted to mean “unless impeached”, but this is a clear conflict of interest. Congress should pass a law that “in good behavior” means “unless convicted of a felony”. Note that this isn’t really an avenue for a Barr like character to abuse this, he would still need to convince a jury to convict any particular judge of a felony in order for him to be removed, so it’s not easy for future autocrats to bully judges using this.
Secondly, congress can determine the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (with a few narrow exceptions), therefore, create a new court, the Court of Judicial Conduct Review, and delegate to it original and appellate jurisdiction for all accusations of misconduct against sitting judges, including any questions about what qualifies as “good behavior”. Appoint fair minded members here, and the Supreme Court has no power to stop any of this. The statute of limitations for any crime committed by a judge should be tolled (i.e. clock doesn’t run) while the president who appointed him/her is in office. So a president can’t just wait for perjury charges (for instance) to expire after an appointment.
Thirdly, bring perjury charges against the judges who obviously lied to congress. This would include ACB, Kavanaugh, Thomas, and surely many others throughout the judicial branch.
Fourthly, pass a law that no judge may accept anything of value from anyone other than the federal government. This will get rid of the private plane rides and other forms of grift, and potentially cause a bunch of Trump’s clowns and grifters to simply retire. Make this a felony, so those who violate it can be removed.
Also, make it a felony for a judge to issue a ruling with no basis in fact or law, with an opportunity for a judge to cure any infractions here. This would be almost impossible to prove, and easily cured for minor errors. However, for truly egregious decisions, if you could convince a jury that the Judge was just making things up, then he could be removed from office for it. This puts some limits on the powers of judges, where currently there are none.
Lastly, merge the immigration tribunals (Article I courts) with the rest of the court system (Article III courts), and appoint sufficient judges at all levels to keep up with the additional workload.
All of this could be passed with a simple majority in Congress, and would unravel 50 years of conservative court packing. It would also make it much harder to do this sort of thing in the future.
