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Why does direct democracy confer legitimacy? Does the Supreme Court not have legitimate authority? I don't see a correlation.

• notfromhere 7y ago
  because legitimate government is based on the consent of the governed? Supreme Court justices are picked by popularly elected Senators. It's not even direct democracy, its a representative democracy. Except in the case of the presidency we're not even allowed to directly pick our representative in the executive branch.
  • kd5bjo 7y ago
    > Supreme Court justices are picked by popularly elected Senators. Not exactly; they’re selected by the President and then confirmed by the Senate, which wasn’t popularly elected until 1913.
    • notfromhere 7y ago
      Senators were legitimized through popular elections since before the whole body was appointed via backroom deals with state legislatures, and have been popularly elected for over 100 years.