Bush sneers defiantly at Congress, daring it to challenge him in the Courts, confident that his appointed lackeys will back him up. Congress appears afraid to move lest adverse rulings of the Supreme Court enshrine the dictatorship forevermore. The Court has already proven that it intends to continue, for as long as Roberts, Scalia, Alito and Thomas can bring one other Justice into their fold, to move the country further and further toward corporate fascism.
It all comes down, over and over again, to the Court. What to do about it? Follow over:
In a very interesting Op-Ed in today's New York Times, Jean Edward Smith recounts the numerous times in our history that the number of Justices composing the Supreme Court has changed. Remember, that number is not set out in the Constitution; the power to determine how many Justices sit on the Court was given to Congress, and several times Congress has changed that number, from as few as five to as many as ten. There is nothing magical about the number nine.
If the Democrats can pick up enough seats in the Senate to give them enough votes to overcome a filibuster, and if we succeed in electing a Democratic President, we will have the opportunity to enact legislation increasing the size of the Supreme Court to, say, eleven Justices. That would give the Democratic President, whomever it might be, the opportunity to appoint two additional, presumably liberal Justices and overcome the power of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to send our country back to the days of the robber barons.
Although I am firmly for impeachment of Bush (and of course of Cheney as well), if the court-packing strategy is workable, perhaps the arguments are strenghened of those who say we ought to be more concerned with increasing our Congressional majorities and electing a Democrat as President.
Whaddaya think? Reasonable plan, or lunacy?