General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's so important that Pres. Biden is determined to fix the Court
In addition to things like ethics rules, term limits and expanding the Court - I want to see impeachments for those who have already acted corruptly and for those who lied about respecting precedent. There also needs to be a true investigation into Kavanaugh - both about who paid off his debt and, more importantly, about allegations of sexual assault ( since the 2000+ tips that came in were buried).
But I am also interested in figuring out how to undo all the damage this corrupt court has done - from decisions about dark money to water and air protections to womens and voters rights to federal agency powers. We have to fix ALL of them.
Which brings us to:
ArtIII.S2.C2.6 Exceptions Clause and Congressional Control over Appellate Jurisdiction
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
Cornel Law School Explanation:
In addition, Congress possesses extensive authority to regulate the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts, and may limit the cases the Supreme Court can hear on appeal by generally stripping the federal courts of jurisdiction over certain cases.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-3/section-2/clause-2/exceptions-clause-and-congressional-control-over-appellate-jurisdiction
Its past time that we pull out all the stops to fix the damage done to our country - I hope with all my heart that President Biden, Soon-To-Be-President Harris and elected Democrats are willing to use this clause to get it done. But it will take the people demanding it, as President Obama once told us about making change.
What do you think?
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servermsh
(1,259 posts)It's going to be hard work. And it is going to take a long time. So our party needs consistent messaging on these topics over an extended timeframe. The system won't be fixed in just a few years.
polichick
(37,356 posts)can be passed pretty quickly to undo some of the worst decisions, as long as theres a willingness to use this clause.
servermsh
(1,259 posts)We have some disadvantages.
The Electoral College makes it harder for us to win the White House because Republicans can more easily win while losing the popular vote.
The Senate is worse. Becase tiny states also get two senators, Republicans can control the Senate while only winning a minority of the vote. These stats keep getting worse as state populations diverge. And unless we kill the filibuster (which we should) the Republicans can block almost anything with even a smaller percentage of the vote.
We also face massive amounts of propaganda from extremely well-funded conservative media outlets that dwarf anything we have. Just imagine we (somehow) had a candidate as bad as Trump. We'd lose more than 40 states in the election. Maybe all 50.
polichick
(37,356 posts)Silent Type
(5,305 posts)Fiendish Thingy
(17,233 posts)There will be no court reform or expansion in the remainder of Bidens term.
I would like to hear what Harriss position on expansion is.
Its nice to imagine a Dem controlled house and senate adding jurisdiction-stripping language to numerous laws, including the codifying of Roe, but one must remember, all it would take it a suit from a state AG to get a case before SCOTUS.
Thats why court expansion must be an essential component of the first 100 days of the Harris administration, whether she explicitly campaigns on it or not.
polichick
(37,356 posts)Any new legislation to protect basic American principles - womens rights, voters rights, air and water, etc., would have to be written with the clause denying the SC jurisdiction - otherwise, yes, it would soon be changed.
bucolic_frolic
(45,600 posts)Hopefully, voters will deliver some progress in November, and then that general trend will continue in smaller increments each election cycle for awhile. This country needs to find some trend of sanity instead of wide swings of alternating partisan influence.
kentuck
(112,186 posts)There should be ethics rules that they all have to follow and if they break them, they should be impeached. If they are especially egregious like Clarence Thomas, they should be convicted. The Supreme Court must know they are not above the law, and neither is the President. That needs to be fixed immediately. No one would have ever guessed that they were so weak and incompetent to come up with such a ruling. But they did.