"...[I]t is imperative that we stop according legitimacy to the Court. The Supreme Court is an existential threat to constitutional democracy. This threat cannot be dismissed as ‘merely’ an ideological disagreement about outcome legitimacy (which, I recognize, is a strange thing to write about an institution that is systematically dismantling the foundations of American electoral democracy. But whatever). The Court has also lost any claim to procedural legitimacy. Which is kind of a problem for the branch of government most dependent upon rational-legal authority.* The Court is quite literally lawless. Justices affirm, or even pen, decisions that rely on incommensurable standards of adjudication. They are contemptuous of long-standing precedents, including ones that have guided decades of legislation. Their opinions are riddled with misrepresentations and fabrications.
"The Roberts Court has, in essence, replaced the rule of law with a permanent state of exception — and appointed itself sovereign. Yes, it has often used that power to give legal cover to the Trump administration’s own lawlessness. But that is a symptom of its underlying corruption, not the rot itself.
"Once we recognize the fundamental
illegitimacy of the Roberts Court — and the threat it poses to democracy
and the rule of law — the obvious response is reform: unpacking,
stripping, and all the rest. But that’s not enough. We must treat the
Roberts Court’s decisions as ‘null and void.” A Court that cares nothing for precedent loses the right to make
precedent. The Court can choose to create a state of legal exception.
We can honor their choice. We can treat their dictates as exceptional
and, by definition, irrelevant to any Court, or any regime, that governs
according to the rule of law." -- Dan Nexon, professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University, on the illegitimacy of the Republican Supreme Court. If we're ever to restore the rule of law and common decency in this country, this Court (and the judicial system as a whole) needs to be reformed and restructured. But we're not alone in thinking we have a foundational problem (see below).
"... The [U.S. Supreme] Court overrides what Congress passed. It overrides what the people chose. All to serve its own ends.
"What this Court has done to constitutional rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law explains why Hawaiʻi’s Constitution takes no instruction from it. [snip]
