The Political Independence of the Supreme Court

We are taught in high school civics that the Supreme Court is supposed to be above politics, and to decide cases on the law, not Party or candidate stances, or shifting values.  That is why the Justices are not elected, but they are appointed for life.  That is why Presidents are tasked to appoint them, and the Senators who serve longer terms than Representatives to advise and consent. This is why the Supreme Court is the independent third branch of government.  This Is what Checks and Balances is all about.
Those who say that the appointment should depend on which Party and which Candidate should be allowed to pick the next justice based on a current election are subverting the entire idea of the politically independent legal third branch of government, and the checks and balances system.
The current President, Obama, has served for seven years. He has worked on compromise solutions when the Congress was willing. He went to Harvard Law School and served as Editor of the Law Review there.  He taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago from 1992 to 2004. He was also elected a Senator and served four years from 2005-2008,  before he was elected President.  He is really the best person to choose the next justice.
The Republican candidates who want the President to forgo his required duty to appoint Justices,  and who want to politicize the justices, are just the people that you don’t trust to make such an appointment. They also want to change the confirmation hearings to make them a political litmus test, which has been avoided in the past.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
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