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Why Obama Should Run Against the Supreme Court?
(Excerpt) But is the court political? Yes. Politics affects how justices are selected (by the elected president) and confirmed (by the elected Senate), and the justices' political ideologies affect their votes and reasoning. The Supreme Court is not applying neutral, non-political rules. If it were, there would be no 5-4 splits between the conservatives and the liberals on the court. There would be no Bush v. Gore.
There would also be no Citizens United where the Court decided 5-4 that Congress could not limit corporations' "speech" rights to spend unlimited sums buying elections. And the arguments in the health-care case would not have been four robed men who "seemed to adopt the Tea Party slogans"
The court is also political fair game because the court's 5-4 decisions, like other "political" decisions by government officials in a democracy, have had such a profound impact on the lives of Americans. Bush v. Gore gave us a president who lost the popular vote, eventually appointed two more justices, and led us into a war of choice while failing to regulate a financial system dependent on toxic mortgage-backed derivatives.
In Bush v. Gore, five justices had a partisan outcome in mind and then made up the judicial principle to justify it, while claiming that the decision would not be precedent for any future cases. If the five most conservative justices currently on the court strike down the health-care law's individual mandate, the law as a whole would likely be scrapped. That means that people with pre-existing conditions would not be able to get health care because of the court. Millions of young people cannot stay on their parents' health insurance until the age of 26. For millions more, getting sick will mean going bankrupt. These five justices would affect the health care of millions of people, men and women. They cannot change people's lives, "take away their health care," and then expect nobody to criticize them.
Finally, the court is political for a simple but fundamental reason: it sets the rules of our politics.
Both the American public and elected officials should not be afraid of subjecting the Supreme Court -- a decidedly political institution -- to the same political arguments and passions to which we subject the rest of Washington, D.C.
Obama should not shy away from the debate. (End)
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-should-run-against-the-supreme-court/255497/
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(Excerpt) But is the court political? Yes. Politics affects how justices are selected (by the elected president) and confirmed (by the elected Senate), and the justices' political ideologies affect their votes and reasoning. The Supreme Court is not applying neutral, non-political rules. If it were, there would be no 5-4 splits between the conservatives and the liberals on the court. There would be no Bush v. Gore.
There would also be no Citizens United where the Court decided 5-4 that Congress could not limit corporations' "speech" rights to spend unlimited sums buying elections. And the arguments in the health-care case would not have been four robed men who "seemed to adopt the Tea Party slogans"
The court is also political fair game because the court's 5-4 decisions, like other "political" decisions by government officials in a democracy, have had such a profound impact on the lives of Americans. Bush v. Gore gave us a president who lost the popular vote, eventually appointed two more justices, and led us into a war of choice while failing to regulate a financial system dependent on toxic mortgage-backed derivatives.
In Bush v. Gore, five justices had a partisan outcome in mind and then made up the judicial principle to justify it, while claiming that the decision would not be precedent for any future cases. If the five most conservative justices currently on the court strike down the health-care law's individual mandate, the law as a whole would likely be scrapped. That means that people with pre-existing conditions would not be able to get health care because of the court. Millions of young people cannot stay on their parents' health insurance until the age of 26. For millions more, getting sick will mean going bankrupt. These five justices would affect the health care of millions of people, men and women. They cannot change people's lives, "take away their health care," and then expect nobody to criticize them.
Finally, the court is political for a simple but fundamental reason: it sets the rules of our politics.
Both the American public and elected officials should not be afraid of subjecting the Supreme Court -- a decidedly political institution -- to the same political arguments and passions to which we subject the rest of Washington, D.C.
Obama should not shy away from the debate. (End)
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-should-run-against-the-supreme-court/255497/
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