MUST WATCH: Sheldon Whitehouse's Master Class on our BOUGHT Supreme Court

[CousinIT]

This isn't even about court packing. It's about court BUYING. And it MUST. BE. STOPPED.

We can NOT have a Democratic Republic when the highest court in the land is packed with justices nominated by Presidents who didn't even win the popular vote - AND justices who are merely purchased by dark money. They can not legally, ethically represent the majority of the American people, and they can not properly interpret US Law on behalf of the entirety of the United States. AT. ALL.

What we HAVE (not "gonna" have, but what we HAVE) is a goddamned banana republic.

THIS. MUST. BE. REMEDIED. RIGHT. NOW.

We need MASSIVE court reform:

1. EXPAND the court to 13 justices - to match the 13 circuit courts we have
2. TERM LIMITS - 20 years per justice.
3. Each justice rotates down to the circuit court on a regular basis to work cases there.
4. For most cases 9 justices are seated (on a varying rotation that CAN NOT be meddled with by politicians, billionaires, Wall St. or corporations - so the Kochs or Exxon or Judicial Crisis Network can't pick or know ahead of time which justices they'll get for any cases they ram up there)
5. For major cases, all justices are seated.

NEW RULES:

1. President who won election by electoral college but NOT by popular vote can NOT nominate US Supreme Court justices. The seat must remain vacant until a popular President is elected.
2. A President who has been IMPEACHED can NOT nominate any US Supreme Court justices. PERIOD. Impeachment SHOULD have consequences and that should be one of them.

If I were running for POTUS, and Democrats swept all three gov't branches, I'd have TWO priorities for my first two years in office:

1. Deal PROPERLY (finally) with the COVID virus and get the country back on track economically (and I don't mean Wall St.)
2. REMORM THE SUPREME COURT as outlined above.

TWO years to get it DONE. I'm telling you some SHIT. WOULD. CHANGE. The corpRATS would scream bloody murder. Let them. The Republicans would scream bloody murder. Let them. The billionaires and their various justice-buying dark-money apparatus would scream bloody murder. Let them. BUT. THIS. SHIT. WOULD. CHANGE.

[rainy]

1. I watched this earlier. Jaw dropping!!!

Corrupt and frightening!

[JHB]

2. Two thoughts on the New Rules:

1) Winning the popular vote should be defined as a plurality or majority of the popular vote. Should it be defined only as "majority", the rule lets minor parties hamstring the system by whittling the vote total leader below 50%.

2) I disagree with the ban for impeached presidents. It's ripe for backfiring. It provides a reward for impeaching the president on minor or complete BS matters.

Both those rule are well-intentioned, but they make it easier for small determined factions to obstruct.

[cstanleytech]

3. I would say no to the impeach option as say the Republicans gained the House they could then impeach

the current Democratic President to prevent him from ever being able to nominate any SCOTUS judge.

[W T F]

4. Holy S#*t!.......our entire judicial system has been systematically corrupted by dark money

[BootinUp]

5. Very compelling stuff, looking forward to part 2. nt

Last edited Wed Oct 14, 2020, 12:18 AM - Edit history (1)

[SunSeeker]

6. Please use this PBS link, not that Fox link.

[CousinIT]

8. Done. Happily. n/t

[freepotter]

7. Wow! We must get big money out of our political and judicial systems.

Thanks so much for posting this. I missed this part of the hearings. I like your ideas to deal with the Court Buying, except for the impeachment disqualification, which could cause issues as cited by others here. Also, both of your New Rules might require Constitutional amendment(s) that would take a long time, and as you said, this needs to be done ASAP. This whole situation makes me nauseated, disappointed, scared, and angry. Certainly shines a light on who is the Deep State and how it operates. Not exactly who/what I had imagined.

All in all, a great and informative post!