Is The Supreme Court Facing A Legitimacy Crisis?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Brett Kavanaugh dropped the demeanor of a neutral jurist and launched into a deeply partisan speech. The use of such nakedly political rhetoric during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing is highly unusual. Of course, they were unusual circumstances. Would-be justices typically present themselves as politically disinterested arbiters of law, and strenuously avoid saying anything that would pigeonhole them on hot-button issues. Now, if Kavanaugh is confirmed to the bench — and perhaps even if he isn’t — some commentators are questioning whether the Supreme Court is heading towards a crisis of faith. If confirmed, will Kavanaugh be forever marked as a political operative? And if he’s not, has his confirmation process shattered the notion that the court is truly independent from politics?

I can’t say for sure whether the Supreme Court is on the edge of a legitimacy crisis, of course — it has recovered from moments of potential partisan taint before. But it’s in a weaker position now than at nearly any point in modern history.

Americans, in general, have more trust in the Supreme Court than in other political institutions. But confidence in the court has been declining over the past 30 years.

Polling from Gallup, which tracks Americans’ confidence in a wide range of institutions, shows that the public has slowly become more disillusioned with the Supreme Court over the past few decades. In the 1980s, majorities routinely reported that they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the court. Gallup’s latest polling from earlier this year, though, found that only 37 percent had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence.



https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-the-supreme-court-facing-a-legitimacy-crisis/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. They blew their credibility for me with Bush v. Gore.

That was the most disingenuous, partisan, poorly-reasoned piece of tripe I'd ever seen come out from people who were supposedly more learned in the law than the rest of us losers.

[cloudbase]

4. Bingo! n/t

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Yes. Why does the supreme court keep visiting ages old issues that have been settled ...

via the Supreme Court before? Because of each new generation's new interpretation of the Constitution and its Amendments? I can't get over this, that simple words on paper can mean so many different things. One reason why we hate lawyers (I don't really hate them, I guess I hate the political scumbags that destroy this whole process and make it difficult for normal everyday Americans to participate in this whole process. It should have been made easier for all around already by now. Easier to vote, easier to be registered, etc. It's not. Everyone should be automatically registered, when they do a change of address, and mail by ballot or the like, e.g., electronically via your computer.

Sadly, I think we're NOT the most democratic nation on earth.

[eleny]

3. Yes, it's one more of our institutions swirling down the credibility drain