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"Packed" is a loaded term in the context of the courts. I assume you just mean there are a lot of Republican apointees. Part of the job of the Senate is to rep

"Packed" is a loaded term in the context of the courts. I assume you just mean there are a lot of Republican apointees. Part of the job of the Senate is to represent the minority. They typically aren't the starting place for major legislation, but often slow down or heavily amend it. You could argue that the minority should have no power at all, I suppose. Democrats used a similar argument to remove the judicial filibuster, which was a great idea right until they became the minority in the Senate. That's really the big lesson that people never seem to learn about democracy: you'll be in the minority at some point, so get protections/obstacles in place while you're in the majority, or you'll regret it sooner than you think.

DFHippie 6y ago
There are a lot of Republican appointees because the Republicans have been playing political hardball with judicial nominations for decades. The Democrats eliminated judicial filibusters because Republicans were attempting to prevent Obama from getting any judges on the bench in the two years the Democrats had the Senate. Then they lost the Senate and the Republicans simply stopped allowing Obama to get judges on the bench, creating a huge backlog which they could fill when Trump took the presidency. Then they eliminated the blue slip rule to further weaken any control the Democrats might have over the process. And they have expanded state courts, a.k.a "packed them". All of this has the same practical consequence: controlling policy outcomes you can't win through elections by nullifying them in the courts. Sure, this is a lesson about democracy. It's a lesson about how to subvert democracy.
CameronNemo 6y ago
Minority in the Senate means something completely different from reality. Count how many people voted for D senators and how many people voted for R senators. Then count how many judicial appointments D presidents have made and how many R presidents have made (in the last 20 years). The math is transparent. The filibuster is just something the senate made up. It does not exist in the constitution, so it is not a true obstacle. The R senators would have gotten rid of it anyway. It doesn't even protect the Senate "minority". And the Senate's job is to prevent people from determining their own future. It was championed by anti-democracy activists like Alexander Hamilton. I hope it no longer exists by the time I perish.

DFHippie 6y ago

There are a lot of Republican appointees because the Republicans have been playing political hardball with judicial nominations for decades. The Democrats eliminated judicial filibusters because Republicans were attempting to prevent Obama from getting any judges on the bench in the two years the Democrats had the Senate. Then they lost the Senate and the Republicans simply stopped allowing Obama to get judges on the bench, creating a huge backlog which they could fill when Trump took the presidency. Then they eliminated the blue slip rule to further weaken any control the Democrats might have over the process. And they have expanded state courts, a.k.a "packed them". All of this has the same practical consequence: controlling policy outcomes you can't win through elections by nullifying them in the courts. Sure, this is a lesson about democracy. It's a lesson about how to subvert democracy.

CameronNemo 6y ago

Minority in the Senate means something completely different from reality. Count how many people voted for D senators and how many people voted for R senators. Then count how many judicial appointments D presidents have made and how many R presidents have made (in the last 20 years). The math is transparent. The filibuster is just something the senate made up. It does not exist in the constitution, so it is not a true obstacle. The R senators would have gotten rid of it anyway. It doesn't even protect the Senate "minority". And the Senate's job is to prevent people from determining their own future. It was championed by anti-democracy activists like Alexander Hamilton. I hope it no longer exists by the time I perish.