December 16, 2021
Are things going to change with the Supreme Court’s authority and make up?
That’ll ultimately be up to the President and Congress, but in the meantime, the White House has posted the nearly 300-page final report that was unanimously agreed to by the 34-member the bi-partisan panel of legal scholars and independent experts who have been reviewing all kinds of possible changes to the supreme court.
I told you this report was coming in this video I posted in October.
Before I tell you what’s in the report – let me say – it does *not* give the President or Congress any recommendations on what they *should* do. The report simply reviews several reform proposals that have been floating around, gives the history of them, the legal analysis for them and arguments both for and against each of them.
It’s also important to know the constitution does *not* specify how many justices should sit on the court – it only establishes *one* Supreme Court. The only specific person identified in the constitution is the “chief justice”. At the same time, the constitution gives Congress the authority to make all laws that are “necessary and proper” to carry out the powers given to Congress under the constitution – and it’s under than clause that congress – since the 1800’s has changed the size and scope of the court and federal judiciary. (Article I) of course you also now, the constitution gives the President – with advice and consent of the senate — the power to nominate federal judges including Supreme Court Justices. (Article II)
So what SCOTUS changes did this panel explore?
The panel talks about all kinds of potential reforms from the idea of adding more justices, to rotating the court’s membership, implementing term limits or a mandatory retirement age.
the draft report also talks about limiting the authority of the court to only hear certain types of cases, giving congress the ability to override a SCOTUS ruling about a piece of legislation, it talks about the perceived lack of transparency on the high court and explores the idea of maybe putting cameras in the court during oral arguments.
If anything changes for the Supreme Court – it’ll be up to the President and Congress to make those changes. And trust me, if that becomes real – you’ll hear about it…and of course I’ll be covering it.
Read the Presidential Commission on SCOTUS here.
