Court-packing began in 1930s

 Dear Editor:

I have a problem with the Supreme Court - and the federal judiciary in general - that you don’t seem to share.

Ever since Roosevelt minor tried to ‘pack’ the Supreme Court with his political cronies in the 1930s, Supreme Court justices have been selected for their political ideology, not for any particular excellence or expertise in law or the
constitution. That’s why the fights over their confirmations have been so nasty and prolonged. You have to remember that most of Roosevelt minor’s socialist programs were being declared unconstitutional, and Roosevelt minor was livid; unfortunately, Roosevelt minor was in office so long that he managed to get enough of his cronies on the Supreme Court anyway, and then all those socialist programs suddenly became Constitutional (and many if not most of the ones that had been declared unconstitutional have been re-enacted and blessed by the politically selected and Constitutionally-challenged Supreme Court.)

Finley Peter Dunne (writing as “Mr. Dooley”) wrote over a century ago: “The Supreme Court reads the election returns.”

Mr. Alito, for instance, was picked by Bush minor as a reward for coming up with a way for the government to torture people seemingly without violating the law or the Constitution. Ms. Sotomayor was picked by Obama because (a) he needed extremist left-wing support for his socialist programs and (b) she had no trail of opinion and refused to talk about her political views (as have nearly all of her predecessors) so it was difficult to muster votes against her.

If decisions were based on the clear wording of the Constitution and the writings of the founders, those decisions would nearly always be unanimous - but Supreme Court decisions are nearly always split on ideological boundaries. 

No, I don’t respect any of them, they’re all political stooges.

The same problem also exists - to a somewhat lesser degree - in the lower federal court system. Most federal judges are picked for their ideologies and, quite often, also as a reward for some political favors or for party loyalty.

That’s the down side of those lifetime appointments, you get marginally competent or incompetent political hacks and there’s no way to get rid of them.

Bob Ackley

Emerson