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Very good comments!
mystic, your proposed composition of the Court falls short. Numerous Justices will have to be added to truly accomplish what you advocate. You will need male and female from each ethnic and religious group, regardless of whether or not they are powerful political elements. After all, are not the courts supposed to represent the little guy?
Beyond that, you have other problems. You want the Court to be packed with the politically powerful. The Supreme Court is supposed to be above politics, just as it is supposed to be above ethnic and gender quotas.
And, the legitimacy of its opinions is based on faithfulness to the Constitution, not the ethnic and gender makeup of the court. That is why the Kelo ruling is illegitimate. Please take note that in Kelo, the Court's liberals - including both women - ruled in favor of big business and the government to strip individuals of private property rights, while those far right stuffy male conservative cavemen came down squarely on the side of the oridnary citizen, the little guy the liberals say the court is supposed to protect.
posted by
WriterofLight
on November 15, 2005 at 7:18 PM
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Congress has even more powers over the Judicial Branch.
It can increase or decrease the number of justices....One interesting thing about FDR's Liberal onslaught was his plan to pack the Supreme Court. Because they were GOP appointees, he wanted his LIBDems in Congress to increase the number of Justices to 14. Why 14? It was just the amount he needed to shift the balance of power to the Liberal side......This was early on and most of his advisers thought this was way to blatant a move and they didn't want to chance an early setback. He eventually (after breaking tradition) was able to accomplish his goal because of longevity.
posted by
Corbin_Dallas
on November 15, 2005 at 4:38 AM
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Totally disagree ....
The Supreme Court has to represent a cross section of society for its opinions to have legitimacy. The days when you conservatives could stack a bunch of old far right cavemen are over. Nowadays, you have to have a woman, a black, and a Jew in addition to you stuffy conservative males because that's what makes up the powerful political elements of our society. As soon as Latins begin to have an impact in the political process, you'll see a Republican nominate one to the bench.
posted by
fwmystic
on November 14, 2005 at 8:42 PM
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