There has been heavy criticism of the US Supreme Court. Its activity even contributes to presidential elections.
There are nine of them, who are appointed by the president for life, and who have the final say on the application of laws in the United States. Whether this will last long depends on the presidential election in November. If Republican nominee Donald Trump wins, it will ensure that most Supreme Court justices remain in deeply conservative hands for some time. This could be done, for example, by asking some determined seventy-year-olds to voluntarily resign and replacing them with some forty-year-olds. If the Democratic candidate becomes president, the situation is likely to change.
The Supreme Court’s current conservative majority, six against three justices, has created a stir in recent years with party political statements on socially sensitive issues. Consider, among other things, the right to cut back on abortion and President Joe Biden’s climate policy. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the latest ruling that exempts a former president from certain actions while he was president. This means that Trump is more likely to be punished for the way he tried to sway the results of the 2020 election.
In late July, Biden allowed judges to serve limited terms. This would give each president the opportunity to appoint judges, making the mix progressively more balanced. Biden can only appoint one judge so far. Trump appointed three during his presidency. Biden called for a tougher ethics code after it was revealed that two conservative judges had been given banquets by wealthy Republican donors.
Democrats are now working on legislation that would protect former presidents from prosecution for criminal offenses. As Biden said: ‘We are not a nation of kings, and no one is above the law here.’
However, these types of legislative changes require a majority in both houses of Congress. The Democrats don’t have that anymore. Republicans have already announced they will not participate. Perhaps Biden wanted to point out to voters that there was a problem. A majority of those voters already care little about the Supreme Court’s path. And with good reason: a well-functioning democracy is impossible without an independent judiciary. That doesn’t seem to be the primary concern of this Republican party right now.
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