Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Keywords

Supreme Court, legitimacy, Anthony Kennedy, court-packing, lottery, balanced bench, Daniel Epps, Ganesh Sitaraman, judicial reform

Abstract

Is the Supreme Court's legitimacy in crisis? Daniel Epps and Ganesh Sitaraman argue that it is. In their Feature, How to Save the Supreme Court, they suggest legally radical reforms to restore a politically moderate Court. Unfortunately, their proposals might destroy the Court's legitimacy in order to save it. And their case that there is any crisis may fail to persuade a reader with different legal or political priors. If the Supreme Court needs saving, it will be saving from itself, and from too broad a conception of its own legal omnipotence. A Court that seems unbound by legal principle is too powerful a weapon to leave lying around in a democracy; we should start thinking about disarmament.

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Library of Congress Subject Headings

Judges--Selection and appointment, Law--Political aspects, Judicial power, Separation of powers

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