TIME FOR 18-YEAR TERM LIMITS | Washington Outlaws Death Penalty | The Pains Of Supreme Court’s Power
October 12, 2018
TOP-ED
|In The Hill, Mark Weston argues that now is the time to end “the judicial wheel of fortune” and impose 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices. He argues, “The Supreme Court’s membership is too important to be left to chance. It is time to amend the Constitution to limit a justice’s time on the bench to 18 years. The current justices would continue to serve for life, but they would not be replaced when they die or retire. Instead, each president would appoint two new justices during a four-year term.”
DOWN WITH THE DEATH PENALTY
|The Washington State Supreme Court just ruled the death penalty is unconstitutional in the state, doing away with its capital punishment system which it called “arbitrary and racially biased.” Washington is now the 20th state in America to outlaw the death penalty. Mark Berman with The Washington Post explains, “The arguments outlined in Washington have echoes of what Supreme Court JUSTICE STEPHEN G. BREYER has said in questioning whether the death penalty itself is constitutional. In a 2015 dissent joined by JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, Breyer called the death penalty’s use ‘capricious, random, indeed, arbitrary’ and said for those sentenced to death, it was ‘the equivalent of being struck by lightning.’ Breyer echoed that point in 2016 when discussing California’s use of the death penalty, saying it similarly was unreliable, arbitrary and plagued by delays.”
THE PAINS OF POWER
|“If you paused during the heated battle over BRETT KAVANAUGH’S Supreme Court nomination to ask yourself whether it made any sense for the appointment of one individual to one position in our government to matter so much, let me assure you: The answer is no. It doesn’t make any sense.” That’s Barry McDonald in The New York Times noting the Kavanaugh controversy should come as a reminder of why the Founders wanted a less powerful institution when they originally envisioned the role of the Supreme Court.
SCOTUS VIEWS
The Case For Abolishing The Supreme Court
Vox“As my colleague Matthew Yglesias noted last week, the Court is now a blunt political instrument, used repeatedly to undermine outcomes of democratic governance — often on behalf of corporate interests. And the recent disaster that was the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation has further delegitimized the Court in the public’s mind. So it’s perfectly reasonable to ask if we should abolish the Supreme Court, or at the very least strip the Court of its ability to overturn laws that it rules unconstitutional. If the Court is no longer a neutral arbiter of the law, if it’s gradually shape-shifting into a partisan weapon, then maybe it’s time to rethink its role in our constitutional system.”
Why Supreme Court Term Limits Won't Work And What To Do Instead
Slate“My preferred approach would take us in the opposite direction. Instead of limiting the terms of the justices, we should delay their start dates. The sitting president still would appoint a justice to fill a vacancy, but the new justice’s term would begin when the sitting president leaves the White House. Thus, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have taken their seats on Jan. 20, 2017 (when Obama left office), and Gorsuch would take his seat on Jan. 20, 2021 (or whenever Trump vacates office).”
Stop Pretending Everything Is Ok
The Washington Post“It’s no wonder justices want to preserve the non-politicized credibility of their institution. Americans should want that, too, and it would be a disaster if Kavanaugh were turning even relatively routine cases like Tuesday’s into referendums on Trump or the Republican Party, or if justices from opposite parties were refusing to speak to each other on principle. But acting as if the absence of that obvious partisanship is a sign that all is well is dangerous, too.”