We need to pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act. A whopping 90% of Americans agree (96% of Dems and 84% of Repubs) according to a recent UMass poll, making it ovwrwhelmingly bipartisan.
"It’s one thing for the public to disagree with the court but believe that it’s just doing its job. It’s another thing for the public to disagree with the court and think its justices aren’t honest and moral."
#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #CodeofEthics
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/03/politics/supreme-court-ethics-code-clarence-thomas/index.html
Right because a bunch of sensationalist news articles have really messed with public opinion here.
But the separation of the branches is a critical part of the US system of checks and balances. Congress absolutely has no role in violating judicial independence by trying to order the judicial branch around like this. It's not only unconstitutional, but it is just a bad idea, the kind of thing you see in utterly corrupt governments around the world.
If the majority of the US public is in favor of it that just speaks to the sad state of civics education in the country today, that people would be so ignorant of the political science consequences of such an overreach.
But then, I guess that goes hand in hand with people buying into the sensational yellow journalism in the first place.
@volkris https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artIII-S1-5-1/ALDE_00013528/
Article III, Section 1: The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
@volkris The Framers structured the Constitution to promote the separation of powers and, in particular, to protect the Judiciary from undue influence by Congress and the Executive Branch. Nonetheless, the Constitution does not impose complete separation between the Judiciary and the political branches. Congress possesses substantial authority to regulate how the federal courts exercise judicial power, albeit subject to certain constitutional limitations.
@tiredaidworker Oh yeah, the Constitution absolutely does impose separation between the branches, and the framers of the Constitution wrote quite a lot confirming that it does!
And putting that aside, I would think that judicial independence is an idea that people generally can get behind.
We see other countries engaging in corrupt acts against their judiciaries, and one would hope we would hold ourselves above that, but here we have a drive to breach that independence. It's not a good look.
