• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I got mixed feelings on this one. The whole idea of lifetime appointments was to make justices incorruptible, not beholden to anyone, and I like that, and it’s mostly worked. Once they’re in, their main concern is their legacy, it’s a big deal for these judges. (And we know, someone’s just fucking itching to tell us how corrupt Thomas is. We know.)

    The better solution is probably adding more justices. That dilutes the power of the President to appoint a majority and dilutes the power of individual justices. Tie it to something other than the whim of Congress. One for each circuit court?

    Oh, and how about some ethics rules? Didn’t Amy Coney Barrett just come out in favor?

    • Aloha_Alaska@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Oh, and how about some ethics rules? Didn’t Amy Coney Barrett just come out in favor?

      According to another poster in a different thread a few days ago, the ethics guidelines are basically already in place and just aren’t enforced. That person suggested that we need more enforcement or penalties rather than more ethics rules.

      I like your idea of adding more justices because of what you said about diluting the president’s power to appoint a majority. It’s an interesting point, although we shouldn’t be in the situation we are in now (“Wait, wait, you can’t rush the process…oh, now that we have the majority we need to finish this quickly!”)

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      The whole idea of lifetime appointments was to make justices incorruptible, not beholden to anyone, and I like that, and it’s mostly worked.

      Just keep paying them for life while barring future employment. Plus, whatever the intention, this clearly hasn’t made them incorruptible, so sticking to it for a purpose it doesn’t succeed at is pointless.

    • BeautifulMind ♾️@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Once they’re in, their main concern is their legacy

      Apparently the legacy some of them are gunning for is ‘we owned the libs and put women back in their place’ tho