Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1999

Abstract

This Article endorses the view of such political "conservatives" as Robert Bork, Pat Buchanan, Orrin Hatch, and Ed Meese that the Constitution of the United States is deeply flawed in conferring too large a political role on life-tenured Supreme Court Justices. It argues that a constitutional amendment to correct excessive judicial independance is long overdue, a conclusion, it contends, that ought be shared by all who believe, as the author does, that the right to self-government is the parent right on which our civil liberties and the market economy ultimately depend and that healthy institutions of self-government require substantial devolution of political power. The Article departs from the more radical remedies being suggested by the named "conservatives" to propose term limits for the Supreme Court Justices and an empowerment of Congress in Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to restore as well as limit some powers of state and local governments. The latter proposal may be likened to the Home Rule provisions found in state constitutions.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Judicial independence, Constitutional law, United States. Supreme Court

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