Confidence in Judges Is in the Gutter and We Need Term Limits To Fix It
Lifetime appointments are a bad idea.
A little more than three years ago, Gallup released the results of an important poll which went largely under-reported and unnoticed. It indicated that Americans’ confidence in federal judges had hit an all-time low, with only 53 percent of respondents indicating they had a fair amount of trust or more in them. It’s hard to imagine that recent events have bolstered that statistic.
In comparison, 55 percent to 60 percent of American colonists were likely either neutral or supportive of the British crown on July 4, 1776, when the Founders signed The Declaration of Independence. So, it appears that today’s federal judges enjoy about the same amount of popular support in America as King George III did at the time of the Revolution.
Further, when the Constitution was ratified in 1788, thereby giving federal judges their lifetime appointments (at least during times of “good behaviour”), the average life expectancy in our newfound republic may only have been 36 (and some may also argue that, for obvious reasons, any tyrant occupying a lifetime position in public office back then quite possibly could have expected to live nowhere near that long). In contrast, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will turn 86 next month.
But more important still, the lifetime appointment system simply hasn’t been working out. Perhaps it’s just human nature: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So, it’s not exactly surprising that abuse of the lifetime appointment system, which by design all but absolves federal judges of personal responsibility for their actions both on and off the bench, seems far more common today than the supposed benefit to justify that system’s existence. The argument is that judges need protection from the capricious whims of politics and popular opinion in order to make unpopular yet legally — and morally-correct decisions.
Indeed, this insulation did not lead the U.S. Supreme Court to issue such a forward-looking ruling in favor of Dred Scott, the escaped slave who was ordered back into servitude after what is widely described as the worst decision in the highest court’s history. Nor does it seem to have led to the upholding today of the very simple, plain and obvious wording of the Second Amendment and the remainder of The Bill of Rights.
https://www.westernjournal.com/confidence-judges-gutter-need-term-limits-fix/?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation&spotim_referrer=recirculation