Friday, February 02, 2007
Does this robe make me look fat?
There's a very interesting article on The American Lawyer's site regarding the Supreme Court's historically low workload and (in turn) their schmoozing for the public.
The author, Dahlia Lithwick, makes some good points. The Roberts Court seems more interested in what the public thinks about them than the workhorse Burger Court or the early years of the Rehnquist Court.
I'll go even further than Lithwick - the Justices are becoming no different than their political counterparts in the Legislative and Executive branches. Heck, they even have people spinning their stats. Take a look at this information on the SCOTUS caseload found on the Supreme Court website. Now that's some good spin! It hides the truth by citing unexplained stats that, when taken into context, mean nothing whatsoever. Mitt Romney needs to find out who wrote that bunk and hire him or her for his political spin machine.
This begs the question: if these Justices are going to act like pure politicians, should we consider going about the process of judicial selection for the Supreme Court through popular elections, as several states already do for their high courts?
The author, Dahlia Lithwick, makes some good points. The Roberts Court seems more interested in what the public thinks about them than the workhorse Burger Court or the early years of the Rehnquist Court.
I'll go even further than Lithwick - the Justices are becoming no different than their political counterparts in the Legislative and Executive branches. Heck, they even have people spinning their stats. Take a look at this information on the SCOTUS caseload found on the Supreme Court website. Now that's some good spin! It hides the truth by citing unexplained stats that, when taken into context, mean nothing whatsoever. Mitt Romney needs to find out who wrote that bunk and hire him or her for his political spin machine.
This begs the question: if these Justices are going to act like pure politicians, should we consider going about the process of judicial selection for the Supreme Court through popular elections, as several states already do for their high courts?
Labels: SCOTUS
Permalink posted by Rob Huddleston @ 3:25 AM 
