Comments on: Biden still has plans to shore up “our democracy” though SCOTUS “reform”

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 17:04:34 +0000

On another site I saw the opinion that this was indeed DOA, and that it is simply political theater, no need to worry.
But, this bit of theater makes legislative and executive control of SCOTUS an official idea; one that might be delayed but not destroyed.
This idea will resurface from time to time until Congress is overwhelmingly Democrat controlled.

By: miguel cervantes

miguel cervantes — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 13:13:55 +0000

the punk in the dunce cap read it wrong

https://www.thefp.com/p/president-biden-supreme-court-reforms-july-2024

its their fault for handing him a loaded b b gun

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 12:47:20 +0000

The judiciary has not, since 1937, attempted to enforce constitutional principles with any consistency and rigor. In important respects, they’ve been the enemy of them. An interesting exception in the last 20 years has been that all levels of the judiciary stopped pretending that ‘the right of the people’ in the 2d Amendment refers to anything but a personal right. This irritates partisan Democrats in fora like this (and on faculties). Another exception arose two years ago when the court over-ruled its 49 years of bad precedents and said that the state legislatures have the discretion to set policy on abortion. This is perfectly obvious, but liberals have been lying to themselves for so long it just generates emotional responses.
==
These aside, the Democratic elite and their street-level dupes are irritated-to-enraged that their exists potential impediments to the crimes they wish to commit. The judiciary is one (albeit their resistance is spotty and they’re criminals themselves now and again), clean elections are another. Widespread gun ownership is a third. The apportionment of the Senate is not one and neither is gerrymandering, but they lie to themselves anyway about that.

By: Steve (retired/recovering lawyer)

Steve (retired/recovering lawyer) — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:03:03 +0000

People, please! Stop thinking that “Biden” is proposing anything; he has not been and will not ever be anything but the front man for the group of Obama leftovers who continue to want to “radically transform” America. Biden is the puppet whose strings are pulled by his masters. He is The Mighty and Powerful Oz who, like the Oz in L. Frank Baum’s tale is eventually exposed as a chimera controlled by behind-the-scenes actors. He is a mouthpiece who reads–barely– off a teleprompter what his controllers have written for him and when he extemporizes, it is nothing but venal, vain boasts about his physical prowess, or of his bravery and all his fictitious achievements, except for when he blabs and blabbers unintelligible verbal droolings. We are not in a fight with “Biden.” We are in an existential fight with forces who are currently ascendant and desirous of overthrowing traditional America and all for which it stands, replacing it with a Maduro-like leftist/communist authoritarian totalitarianism. Analyzing “Biden’s” moves, motives and public pronouncements is a chump’s game unless one realizes and identifies the source. And the same holds true for the next avatar of those same leftist/communist ideologues, the utterly exerable Kamala Harris, who has been chosen as Biden’s successor because she is as vacuous, vain, stupid and willing to do as told as her predecessor.

By: Skip

Skip — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 08:47:29 +0000

The Puppet has no where to go, so might as well use him to destroy what’s left of the Constitution

By: om

om — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 03:47:08 +0000

Brandon said something?

FJB.

By: R2L

R2L — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 03:26:22 +0000

Seems a good time to repeat my earlier suggestion for modified term limits, with supermajority voting. The goal is to keep good people and remove slackers/frauds.
E.g.: House reps get 4 terms as normal, but 5th election they have to win by 55 or 57%; next election by 65%, next 72%, and so on, if they are really that good and that popular. Eventually this reduces the power of incumbency and incentivizes more challengers.

E.g.: Senators get 2 terms, then 3rd and later elections follow same or more severe supermajority %’s as for the House reps [e.g., 60% and 70% since they (still) serve for 6 year terms?].

I gather some states have (nominally nonpartisan) elections to “retain” their SC justices, where the term of service varies. This is probably not a good idea for the federal SCOTUS, as it would end up being all to partisan in the end.
But if implemented, maybe have 10 year terms, with 60% supermajority for 2nd term and 70% for 3rd term ????

All of above still need constitutional amendments, of course, but possibly achieved via a convention of the states to bypass resistance in the Congress to these ideas.

By: Paul In Boston

Paul In Boston — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:36:22 +0000

When the Bill of Rights was being debated, the anti-Federalists wanted rotation-in-office = term limits on the Senators and Congressmen. Should have done it then, it limits the graft.

By: Geoffrey Britain

Geoffrey Britain — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:25:29 +0000

neo correctly observes that, “the left doesn’t give up; it merely postpones”

It is inarguable that the left’s ideological imperatives cannot but result in tyranny because the utopia they envision is unsustainable without increasingly severe coercion.

In an armed society, history has demonstrated what happens when tyranny becomes intolerable. One ‘trigger wire’ for armed conflict would be if the left attains the political power to act upon its belief that there are no God ordained inalienable rights, no “self-evident truths”. Only State approved privileges that are subject to nullification through the constitutional amendment process.

“So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people you don’t even know that fire is hot…” George Orwell

The left’s activists and elite’s ideological blinders prevent them from realizing that they are sawing off the ‘branch’ of Western Civilization upon which they sit. Perhaps never have so many been so blind.

By: Abraxas

Abraxas — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:14:01 +0000

Lifetime tenure was supposed to insulate the justices from bribery, from doing favors for litigants in hopes of getting favors in return after they retire. Biden claims he wants higher ethical standards for the justices, but the result of his plan might well be much lower conduct by those on the bench.

And c’mon. Biden was a Senator for 36 years. That’s twice 18, and he’s been in DC politics for 51 years (including the brief four year hiatus). I’d hold up on term limits for justices and judges until representatives and senators get them.