Politiks

agentkgb · Sun May 06, 2007 1:01 am US Supreme Court Judges

Is the way we select them the right way to do it? These are nine of the ten most powerful people in the country, why aren't they elected?

Ekaf · Sun May 06, 2007 1:58 am

Maybe they should be elected, I think we should definitely keep the life-time appointments though.

Maximus Vigilus · Sun May 06, 2007 2:45 am

Power corrupts, I think they should be elected or re-chosen based on merit every so often.

Redneck · Sun May 06, 2007 3:13 am

No we need to keep it the way it is. it's been that way since 1789 and it has worked for our nations history so why change it?

Maximus Vigilus · Sun May 06, 2007 3:17 am

Redneck wrote: No we need to keep it the way it is. it's been that way since 1789 and it has worked for our nations history so why change it?

Perhaps because it has not worked well enough.

Redneck · Sun May 06, 2007 3:19 am

How hasn't it worked? in my opinion it has worked exactly like it was designed to. there have been a few contraversial decissions but all courts have had a few.

Maximus Vigilus · Sun May 06, 2007 3:26 am

Few reasons.

1) The same people are on the Supreme Court for a long period of time, which means two things even though there may be better people for the job they have to wait for them to basically die, second ideas change over time but the Supreme Courts interests will likely remain the same.

2) They are not effective on nearly any isssue they rule on.

Redneck · Sun May 06, 2007 3:50 am

they are appointed to life for a reason, so they don't bow down to politics. if the judges had to worry about politics we would see all sorts of rulings favoring one side over the other, and that aren't in the best interest of justice.

The court has been very influentian on a lot of their decissions. if they rule against something it's illegal, and it would take a constitutional admendment to over rule.

Maximus Vigilus · Sun May 06, 2007 3:59 am

Redneck wrote: they are appointed to life for a reason, so they don't bow down to politics. if the judges had to worry about politics we would see all sorts of rulings favoring one side over the other, and that aren't in the best interest of justice.

You must have missed the lesson on "Power Corrupts".

Redneck · Sun May 06, 2007 6:02 am

They have hardly any power, the court actually kept itself in check with Marbury v. Madison. The case was a long time ago, but the court really limited its own powers. all the court can really do is decide weather or not laws are constitutional or unconstitutional. They do have more power than any other court in the land, but thats to be expected.

NightSnake · Sun May 06, 2007 7:39 pm

Redneck wrote: they are appointed to life for a reason, so they don't bow down to politics. if the judges had to worry about politics we would see all sorts of rulings favoring one side over the other, and that aren't in the best interest of justice.
It means they don't have to bow down to anything, including what the rest of the 299,999,991 people in the country think about the issues they rule on. It creates a branch of the government that is nearly completely detached from public opinion.

Maximus Vigilus · Sun May 06, 2007 7:40 pm

NightSnake wrote: Redneck wrote: they are appointed to life for a reason, so they don't bow down to politics. if the judges had to worry about politics we would see all sorts of rulings favoring one side over the other, and that aren't in the best interest of justice.
It means they don't have to bow down to anything, including what the rest of the 299,999,991 people in the country think about the issues they rule on. It creates a branch of the government that is nearly completely detached from public opinion.

At least someone understands.

Redneck · Sun May 06, 2007 11:25 pm

They dont need to be swayed by public opinion. thats why we have three brances of government, the other two are to be swayed by the popular opinon and the courts and to rule on laws. there are still checks and balances in place so that the other two branches can still override the court. the Supreme court only gets cases which have climbed the latter of the other courts, so they really don't have any power until a court comes to their attention.