4 ms·
A reasonable idea I've seen floated: Each presidential term gets exactly one new "seat" and the size of the court fluctuates between these additions and justice
by minikites 6y ago
A reasonable idea I've seen floated: Each presidential term gets exactly one new "seat" and the size of the court fluctuates between these additions and justices retiring. There's no reason it needs to be a fixed size.
- spiritplumber 6y agoIt needs to be an odd number.
- minikites 6y agoWhy? Justices recuse themselves in some cases, so ties are already possible. I believe the lower court ruling is upheld in those cases.
- waterheater 6y agoThey recuse in some cases but not most. Given that all Justices are expected but not guaranteed to vote in cases, it makes the most sense to have an odd number to minimize the cases of ties.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- minikites 6y agoAssuming the case is close enough that a tie is plausible. There are plenty of 9-0 and 7-2 decisions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/06/28/those-5-4-decisions-on-the-supreme-court-9-0-is-far-more-common/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/0... >The 5-to-4 decisions, by comparison, occurred in 19 percent of cases.
- brandmeyer 6y agoIMO, it ought to be an even number. It would help make the court less active and more (operationally) conservative by requiring them to have more consensus in their rulings. The US Senate has a hard time passing new bills precisely because it reflects the growing ideological divide in this country. This should be a time for less activism and more consensus-building, not less.