Placing the separation of powers above the nation’s need for complementary powers and balance of power was just the latest in a series of foolish ideas originating within the bowels of the United States Supreme Court. The right wing’s confusion about what the Constitution implies, as opposed to what malign actors infer, has become a serious problem for the nation. Gutting constitutional imperatives, such as checks and balances, in favor of unconstitutional immunities clearly derived from megalomanic notions of infallibility held by popes and kings, is even more serious. And, in the context of our democratic republic, it signals the arbitrary conferring of absolute power to a unitary executive, by an agenda driven Court already cloaking itself with absolute judicial immunity. The unbridled majority has been corrupted absolutely.
The Court’s textualism and originalism is pure fetishism. Those who have worshipped on the altar of inanimate objects like the letter of the law; and who are overawed by its supposed magical powers, ditched the Spirit of the law a long time ago because it was too difficult for malign actors to twist. And now, they are actively perpetrating a fraud upon the public through their pretense concerning any actual respect for the law.
The phrase engraved on the West Pediment, above the front entrance of the United States Supreme Court building reads “Equal Justice Under Law.” And, although this is a worthy societal ideal that has influenced the American legal system during good times, it was despised by the founding elite and was never even an aspirational statement for the majority occupying the big chairs within that building.
The Court’s contempt for the public interest is on full display even though they block cameras from the courtroom and audio streaming as they read their Opinions. In a nation where dark money nominations, confirmations, and accommodations have effectively bought off its Supreme Court, there was a time when sunshine laws were in vogue. But the Supreme Court never embraced them for reasons that are now obvious due to their fear of transparency.
It has now become a matter of utmost urgency that the Court be expanded to twenty-one Justices without further delay. It is not enough merely to match the number of Justices to the number of Judicial Circuits. Only a Court large enough, featuring a widely distributed grounding that can resist the upheaval of seismic political shifts, can fulfill its obligations in accordance with the judicial and constitutional oath.