Reference no: EM133506858

Assignment:

We are looking at the judiciary.

As many of you might be aware, the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in February of 2016 led to a few interesting developments. Upon Scalia's death, with almost nine months left in Barack Obama's presidency, the Republicans in the Senate refused to consider Obama's nominee to the court, Merrick Garland. They asserted that the next President should make the appointment. This was an unprecedented move - and left the Supreme Court under-resourced and operating with 8 justices for a little over a year. Following his election, President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch for the open seat and he was confirmed in in April of 2017. Since that time, Brett Kavanaugh was also appointed to the court, despite many concerns over his honesty and fitness for office. The contention that he was "pushed through" by the Republican majority despite evidence that could have derailed his appointment remains an asterisk on his appointment. We are now had one more appointment to the court, that of Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Our discussion this module is going to focus on whether or not the process for appointing justices has become too politicized - and if this politicization is more or less democratic than it used to be.

Please select and read three of the following resources and then answer the questions below.

Resources:

1. "Politicizing the Supreme Court" from the Stanford Law Review
2. "The Supreme Court is a Political Court. Republicans' Actions are Proof" - Opinion piece from The Washington Post
3. "John Roberts Criticized Supreme Court Confirmation Process, Before there was a Vacancy" from The New York Times
4. "Supreme Court Justices are Not Judges" from Slate
5. "During Kavanaugh Hearings, a Senator Alerted FBI to New Allegation"
6. Big Take Aways from Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings from Slate
7. The Gap between a Nominee and the Senate has Never Been Bigger Opinion piece from the Washington Post

Questions: Which three articles did you read? How political/biased is the Supreme Court? Are justices just political actors with lifetime terms, or are they reasonably unbiased arbiters of the law? Should their confirmation be such a politicized process - What does democracy require? Is the increasing politicization of the Supreme Court benefiting or harming our democracy and the citizens it serves?