Birdblog: Courting Judicial Change

By Aussiegirl

Once again Tim Birdnow writes a brilliant column explaining some little known facts behind the original intent of the Founders as to the relative powers of the courts. With the Roberts nomination hearings going on now, you won't read a better background analysis of what is going on, and Tim delivers a powerful argument supporting judicial term limits.

Here's just one excerpt:

Birdblog: Courting Judicial Change: "The old arguments for lifetime appointments for the Judiciary no longer work. The Courts have become too powerful, and the appointment of one activist Justice to the Supreme Court has repercussions for half a century or more. The Founders hadn`t foreseen this. They believed that the Judiciary should be shielded from political winds, but the Judiciary has become the Hurricane which is blowing those winds through our society. At present, we have absolutely no way of holding this branch of government accountable. It has become the most powerful branch, with the Executive and Legislative Branches asking how high when the Court says jump. Furthermore, as Jeff Jacoby points out, with the increase in longevity Justices now can spend decades on the Court instead of years. This has to stop.

The Founders had originally planned for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Unfortunately, it has become a government of lawyers, by lawyers, for lawyers. How many of our representatives are NOT attorneys? How many Judges or Justices? It has become common wisdom that Judges and Justices must be Doctors of Jurisprudence, but that was not at all what the Founders intended. Where, pray tell, is that qualification in the main body of the Constitution? Why isn`t it there? Because that was never their intent to have America governed by such a narrow school of thought."