{"id":1606227,"date":"2022-08-15T08:01:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T12:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1606227"},"modified":"2022-08-15T08:02:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T12:02:28","slug":"democrats-term-act-would-pack-the-supreme-court-with-politicians-in-black-robes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-term-act-would-pack-the-supreme-court-with-politicians-in-black-robes-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats\u2019 TERM Act Would Pack The Supreme Court With Politicians In Black Robes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-term-act-would-pack-the-supreme-court-with-politicians-in-black-robes-2%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1606227&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>If the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/supreme-court\/non-scalable-fence-erected-supreme-court-abortion-related-protests-rcna27452\">non-scaleable fences<\/a> surrounding the marble courthouse are any indication, the Supreme Court is under heavy fire. Congressional Democrats have now entered the fray with a proposal to subvert the independence of the federal judiciary. They intend to do this by passing the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM) Act, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/2022\/jul\/27\/supreme-court-justices-term-limits-democrats-bill\">introduced<\/a> in late July.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Their sneaky court-packing scheme endangers the separation of powers and individual liberty. It must be rejected.<\/p>\n<p>Frustrated by a slew of conservative legal victories, Democrats introduced the TERM Act, which would <a href=\"https:\/\/hankjohnson.house.gov\/media-center\/press-releases\/rep-johnson-introduces-supreme-court-justice-term-limit-measure-restore\">establish<\/a> 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices, after which they would \u201cassume senior status,\u201d a quasi-retirement that drastically reduces their caseload and corresponding influence. To fill these vacancies, the president would appoint a new justice during the first and third years of his term. <a href=\"https:\/\/hankjohnson.house.gov\/media-center\/press-releases\/rep-johnson-introduces-supreme-court-justice-term-limit-measure-restore\">Cast<\/a> as \u201can effort to restore legitimacy and independence to the nation\u2019s highest court,\u201d the TERM Act would ironically undermine both, transforming the court from an institution of law to a panel of politicians.<\/p>\n<p>Our Founding Fathers <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed78.asp\">created<\/a> the judiciary to be the \u201cbulwark\u201d of a limited government. Judges were to keep the federal government and its constituent parts in their proper spheres of authority and safeguard political minorities against the depredations of the governing class. To do either, however, the framers <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed78.asp\">understood<\/a> that the judiciary must be independent of Congress and the president. Otherwise, <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed51.asp\">warned<\/a> James Madison, \u201cthe stronger faction c[ould] readily unite and oppress the weaker,\u201d rendering the Constitution\u2019s guarantees an empty promise.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Life tenure completely <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed51.asp\">severs<\/a> \u201call sense of dependence\u201d between the judiciary and the politicians responsible for their commission, empowering judges to check government excess without fear for their livelihoods. If enacted, the TERM Act would spell the demise of judicial independence. Justices would no longer decide cases in accordance with the letter and spirit of the law. Instead, concern for future employment would sway reason and undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court as an impartial arbiter of the law.<\/p>\n<p>The statute would immediately relegate conservative Justice Clarence Thomas to senior status, clearing the way for president Biden to elevate another progressive to the bench. Such brazenly partisan interference with the court\u2019s composition would further delegitimize and politicize it.<\/p>\n<p>Further compounding its delegitimizing effect, the TERM Act would turn presidential elections into existential contests for control of the Supreme Court and the direction of American case law. Because the bill guarantees two Supreme Court nominations per presidential term, candidates and parties would surely campaign on a pool of favored jurists from whom to pick. They may even preemptively select two nominees to curry the favor of certain voters. And with the selection of justices fused into electoral politics, the voting public would see them as politicians in black robes, indistinguishable from the heads of departments, agencies, or commissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Either in appearance or fact, under the TERM Act politics would come to influence the court\u2019s holdings, thus undermining its legitimacy as a bastion of impartial arbitration. Such delegitimization would give Congress and the president the perfect excuse to ignore the court and utterly disregard its role in interpreting the law. It would cease to function as what Hamilton <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed78.asp\">called<\/a> the \u201cintermediate body between the people and the legislature,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed51.asp\">imperiling<\/a> our \u201cgreat security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice Antonin Scalia once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ggz_gd--UO0&#038;t=203s\">explained<\/a>: \u201cThe real key to the distinctiveness of America is the structure of our government.\u201d By this, he meant the separation of powers that serves as the safeguard of freedom by preventing the centralization of government power. The linchpin of this structure is an independent judiciary, the TERM Act endangers our constitutional design and the individual liberty it secures.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Charles Brandt is a second-year law student at The George Washington University Law School.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the non-scaleable fences surrounding the marble courthouse are any indication, the Supreme Court is under heavy fire. Congressional Democrats have now entered the fray with a proposal to subvert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":1897932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1606227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_finder_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/15\/democrats-term-act-would-pack-the-supreme-court-with-politicians-in-black-robes\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=democrats-term-act-would-pack-the-supreme-court-with-politicians-in-black-robes","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1606227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1606227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1606227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1606227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}