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Legitimacy is critical to SCOTUS. The SCOTUS has no enforcement power. It's decisions are not self executing. See the massive backlash and rioting in southern states after the Court's Brown v Board ruling. Presidents reluctantly had to step in w/ federal troops to enforce the 1/
9-0 order. Justice Black from Alabama received death threats, his grand kid beat up in school, made persona non grata by family/friends because of his decision. And that was the 9-0 decision. Court watchers know that it's a lie that the SCOTUS is apolitical when the selection 2/
process of federal judges, to the confirmation, to the Court's selection of cases to grant cert, to the selection of the type of constitutional theory to frame a case, to the interaction of the justices in hammering out the actual decisions are all shot through with politics. 3/
Yet most of the general public believes the courts and especially SCOTUS to be apolitical, an erroneous belief aided and abetted by the justices themselves such as when C.J. Roberts said he viewed his job as "calling balls and strikes" as if he had no role in shaping the 4/
outcome of decisions. But whether the SCOTUS is actually apolitical and whether the general public regards it as a political institution, no different from Congress and the Presidency, is critical to the Court's reputation. When the public respects the Court, they will comply 5/
rulings, even if grudgingly. But if the public comes to regard the SCOTUS as purely political and partisan, they will be less respectful of rulings. Many conservatives and liberals on the Court understood this point, C.J. Roberts does too, but we are now entering a much more 6/
intense phase of polarization and partisanship. The only way to move away from this toxicity is to also ensure that our democracy is made more broad based. Granting statehood to the 4 million American taxpayers in DC and Puerto Rico are a start, passing a new VRA is another 7/
step. So much to do, but first an election must be won. So eat your Wheaties and prepare for a long war. 8/8
