06-10-2016, 06:01 PM
(06-10-2016, 11:34 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:(05-14-2016, 04:56 PM)Bronco80 Wrote: I'm staking out territory on this thread since this tends to be up my wheelhouse, and we're likely to get a bunch of opinions over the next six weeks.
I feel guilty about feeling hopeful about a death (Scalia), but unfortunately the Constitution forces those kind of feelings when it comes to the Supreme Court. The biggest short term stake in this presidential election is far and away the balance of power at the Court. If Scalia does get replaced by Garland or (hopefully) someone further left, there's going to be a long laundry list of terrible precedents that I'd like to see overturned ASAP.
I have a different hope. The purpose of the Supreme Court is to be a highly apolitical body to adjudicate matters of Constitutionality. It's time for this Left - Right bullshit vis a vis its justices to cease. There should be no such thing as a "Leftist" or a "Rightist" justice. What qualifies a person to be a justice of the SCotUS among other things is an ability to rise above the fray of polity. That is a special skill set. People like Garland are precisely what the doctor ordered. May there be many more and may the SCotUS return to its correct function.
As long as Supreme Court justices are appointed by politicians, it willl remain an inherently political institution. It's been that way ever since it began. SCOTUS like to say that they're above the fray of polity, but deep down they know it's not a coincidence that they split into similar camps over and over again. So with that being the case, in my own worldview I'd certainly like to see the Court pull more left than it's been at.