PACKING THE COURT

    To continue with the theme of my most recent post, the 2020 election has highlighted several of the 'glaring faults' of the Constitution. In particular, the current threat of a Biden/Harris / Harris/Biden administration together with the Democrat Party retaking the Senate of adding extra Justices to the Supreme Court is sufficiently likely that they won't even discuss the possibility. Such an action would render the Court an even less useful body than currently exists.

    The Constitution leaves the numerical makeup of the Supreme Court up to Congress. This in itself is not necessarily bad, but safeguards should have been in place to prevent modifications (packing the Court) from being a political tool. It would seem that at the very least, restricting any changes from taking place should be deferred until every seated member of Congress has been subjected to an election and possible replacement. That, together with allowing for such proposed changes to be rescinded in the interim 4 to 6 years would go a long way to frustrating the kind of mischief currently contemplated by the Democrats.

    The phrase in Article III granting Justices tenure during 'good behavior' seems a little lax in that a lifetime appointment too often in modern times means possibly extending into infirmity. Since most Justices are confirmed during middle age, a cap on maximum duration of a couple of decades would seem to be better than waiting for the grim reaper to trigger replacement. Some nonagenarians maintain their wits in spite of their longevity, but all too often some degree of senility sets in. Subjecting the integrity of the Supreme Court to the risk of such possibilities seems unwise.

    The fact is that any system design, subjected to the rigors of implementation and use, inevitably shows signs of faults and omissions that a second attempt might try to correct. However, referring again to Fred Brooks' 1975 book The Mythical Man Month, the risk of such attempts becoming bloated and worse than the original (The Second System Effect) is somewhat evident in the fact that the Constitutional Amendments too often sully the elegance and simplicity of the original document. The author's opinion is that we're running about 50-50 which is probably not bad for almost 250 years.