[ExI] The Handmaid's Tale

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Sat, Sep 26, 2020 at 7:22 PM Anton Sherwood <bronto at pobox.com> wrote:
> On 2020-9-26 10:06, Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat wrote:
> > I'm guessing court-packing will be the way the Democrats can deal with
> > this problem. Once that happens, though, then I think it'll be hard to
> > stop each party from using it. The limit will be the need to control
> > both houses of the Congress to carry it out. (Court-packing would
> > probably have the effect of neutralizing the Supreme Court -- I mean
> > neutralizing its supposed role of balancing against the other branches
> > of the government.)
>
> Court-packing is a problem that tries to solve another problem.
> Here is a way to avoid both.
> https://reason.com/2020/09/23/two-cheers-for-supreme-court-term-limits/
>
> I don't think term limits a necessary element of the scheme; fixed
> periodic appointments go most of the way to solve the problem.
> If increasing longevity makes the court awkwardly big, and the court
> itself cannot solve that problem (e.g. by drawing lots for which N
> members shall hear each case), then we can discuss a Constitutional
> Amendment to limit terms.

Nothing wrong with considering that too. I mean for those inclined to
keep the basic system intact. I read that article earlier too. I was
thinking 18 years is very long. If I were forced to design such a
system, I'd probably go with 9 to 11 years. Why? If that's the only
change, then this is long enough that the president who appoints the
judge is not going to be in office to appoint that same judge's
successor given term limits on presidents.

I'd also be inclined to having similar terms limits on federal judges
across the board, making a similar around a decade limit. This would
stop what we have now: one president who's really got a huge number of
appointments because the Senate stymied the process for the previous
president. (Not that the previous president was somehow better, but
gaming the process managed to allow one party -- more one faction of
one party to nearly take over the judiciary below the USSC level.)

I hope they consider ways of making appointments to the courts way
less political -- maybe by using sortition or distributing the
process. For instance? Sortition, as mentioned elsewhere, or rotating
who gets to decide appoints, letting me out of the box... Other things
to make political input harder in the selection process. None of these
would be foolproof.

Regards,

Dan
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