More Thoughts on the Court’s Dire Corruption and the Necessity of Reform

Here’s a quick follow-up to yesterday’s post about the corrupt Supreme Court. Yesterday I noticed that law professor Steve Vladeck argued in Bluesky that Civic Democrats were making a mistake in seeking to “fix” the Court by, as he put it, “permanently weakening it as an institution.” The gist of his argument is that you constrain the Court by “forcing it to look over its shoulder” when it makes a decision. In an article on the subject, he writes, “compared to a time when Congress controlled things like When the Court sits; Or he sits; which the cases he hears; the court budget; and what judges should do when they are not hearing cases (that’s to saytravel their circuits), today’s Court can do pretty much what it wants, when it wants, and all without having to realistically look over its shoulder.”

I told him that I actually agreed with the idea that the court is “looking over its shoulder” – that you have a range of ways to respond when you get out of line. I’m not sure of the best method to apply this pressure. But I agree with the general principle. Or rather, I agreed with it – but I think we missed the window for this kind of Congressional intervention. (You can see our brief exchange here.)