Monday, June 28, 2021

The Supreme Court is an anti-democratic force - Nikolas Bowie



Nikolas Bowie's statement to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court  is a breath of fresh air - throwing away the reverential cant  in which the Supreme Court is routinely cloaked.  I have touched on many of these points in classes and blog posts over the years, but never with the clarity and candor Bowie brings to the fore. - GWC

Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States

The Contemporary Debate over Supreme Court Reform: Origins and Perspectives 

 Co-Chair Rodriguez, Co-Chair Bauer, and members of the Commission, thank you for inviting me to testify. You have asked for my opinion about the causes of the current public debate over reforming the Supreme Court of the United States, the competing arguments for and against reform at this time, and how the commission should evaluate those arguments. The cause of the current public debate over reforming the Supreme Court is longstanding: Americans rightfully hold democracy as our highest political ideal, yet the Supreme Court is an antidemocratic institution. 

The primary source of concern is judicial review, or the power of the Court to decline to enforce a federal law when a majority of the justices disagree with a majority of Congress about the law’s constitutionality. I will focus on two arguments for reforming the Supreme Court, both of which object to the antidemocratic nature of judicial review. 

First, as a matter of historical practice, the Court has wielded an antidemocratic influence on American law, one that has undermined federal attempts to eliminate hierarchies of race, wealth, and status. 
Second, as a matter of political theory, the Court’s exercise of judicial review undermines the value that distinguishes democracy as an ideal form of government: its pursuit of political equality. 

Both arguments compete with counterarguments that judicial review is necessary to preserve the political equality of so-called discrete and insular minorities. But even accepting that the political equality of all Americans should be protected, the justification for judicial review is not persuasive as a matter of practice or theory. I believe you should evaluate the proposals for reforming the Supreme Court by asking whether they will make the United States more democratic...

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