In a oped piece in the Washington Post this morning, Joe Biden proposed common sense reforms to the SCOTUS.  It would have been really nice had he proposed those 3 1/2 years ago rather than as a lame duck president, but it’s a badly needed proposal.  In those years of dawdling, an obviously corrupted court has taken a hatchet to the Constitution and almost 250 years of settled law.  The radical majority has been rapidly disassembling longstanding administrative law, voting rights, women’s rights to choose their own reproductive healthcare, gun safety laws, bribery laws, and longstanding understanding of Constitutional principles such as immunity.  They’ve also actually invited parties to bring lawsuits to the court to speed up their destruction (see US v. Trump).

The problem with the court, though, is not just the last few years.  The current crisis has been building since  Reagan nominated Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia and GHWB nominated Clarence Thomas.  Bork was the original originalist, believing the Constitution should only be interpreted through the Founders’ eyes, ignoring what happened between 1789 and current day.  It’s idiotic. The concept is radical and has brought us some of the worst SCOTUS decisions since the disastrous Dred Scott decision in 1857 that ruled that the Constitution did not protect enslaved Americans.

Chief Justice John Roberts has presided over this abortion (pun intended) and has inexplicably defended not only the court’s decisions, but has steadfastly resisted oversite from the Legislative branch and reforming itself.  He has allowed Thomas to flout both the law and common sense, ignoring the fact that he (as well as Alito) have been bought and paid for by partisan and corporate interests.

Even while acknowledging the crisis at the SCOTUS, Biden has been reluctant to step in.  He started a commission to study the court and make recommendations, but three years later, he’s done nothing.  Only now, after he became a lame duck, is he proposing long needed change.  Beyond waiting WAY too long to propose changes to the court, there’s no chance that they’ll get a fair hearing in the legislature.  The Insurrectionist Party, which clings to a tiny majority in the House, has no interest in doing anything beyond putting its collective nose up TFG’s diapered ass, so reform bills will no nowhere for now.  They LOVE the Court as it is, and only a change in November will make reform of the Court possible.

What can we do?  Vote.  Every single incumbent and candidate who supports TFG or this court must be defeated.  That, of course, is not going to happen in one election, but it’s a start.  And that’s the only chance we have of pulling us back from the brink.

Last week during a speech at Harvard Law School Justice Stephen Breyer warned that “packing the court” by expanding it could erode confidence of the American people in the judgements of the courts.  When I read this my first reaction was that my confidence in the judgements couldn’t be any more eroded, especially after the Heller decision which overturned more than a century of precedent regarding gun safety laws, Citizens United which stupidly claimed that money doesn’t corrupt, Shelby which struck down key protections of the Voting Rights Act, and lately Knight which dismissed the case against Trump for banning critics on his Twitter account even though he used that account for public policy making.

Yesterday EJ Dionne called out Breyer for his position, correctly criticizing him for blaming the wrong side for politicization of the court.  Dionne pointed out the above cases and McConnell successfully stealing a seat when he refused to give Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill Scalia’s seat in 2016 and rushing Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination just a few days before the 2020 election that Trump lost.

Breyer is fantasizing about what the court should be rather than what it’s become, a tool for cementing in extreme rightwing ideology.  Biden is correct to open a commission about the court, and I believe it’s long past time to increase the size of the court to balance its judgments.  A better solution would be to establish term limits for SCOTUS seats, but that is more difficult due to the Constitutional arguments for not have limits.

All that said, it’s long past time to fix the Supreme Court, because what we have now is clowns in charge of the circus, and that damn sure doesn’t give any confidence in its judgements.