Senator Chris Murphy has dismissed claims by the supreme court justice, Samuel Alito, that the Senate has “no authority” to create a code of conduct for the court as “stunningly wrong”.
The Connecticut Democrat made those remarks in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, adding that Alito “should know that more than anyone else because his seat on the supreme court exists only because of an act passed by Congress”.
“It is Congress that establishes the number of justices on the supreme court,” Murphy said. “It is Congress that has passed in the past requirements for justices to disclose certain information, and so it is just wrong on the facts to say that Congress doesn’t have anything to do with the rules guiding the supreme court.”
Yes but Congress “checks” SCOTUS by nominating and approving (Senate only) justices, allocating resources for the appellate courts and impeaching justices. Not by regulating their moral character.
An ethics process similar to the ethics process in the House and Senate would not be something Congress could implement without a Constitutional Amendments. In theory SCOTUS could implement it upon themselves (although they lack the power to remove/censure their fellow justices like the House and Senate can do), but they could only request Congress impeach someone who failed the ethics review.
Reread Article 3, please. Congress structures the Courts, and justices hold their positions during “good behavior”. Doesn’t it follow that Congress can establish what “good behavior” means?
Sure, but to remove a justice they need to impeach. So Congress can record a judges “Bad Behavior” and then include that in the reasons for their impeachment if they so desire. But outside of impeachment the don’t have a method to enforce their desires on SCOTUS.
If they aren’t physically accountable to anyone then they might as well be the unelected Junta of the United States. Someone has to determine what good behavior actually is, and if it’s them themselves then that flies in the face of the entire interdependent system of government we have.
Why? Congres ultimately has the power of impeachment. If SCOTUS doesn’t regulate itself they can be summarily dismissed by Congress. Additionally, Congress can tie budget to ethics panels and behaviors should it choose to abuse its power of the purse.
But a morality clause would likely be used by either party as a backdoor to push for decisions that it wants. Imagine the decision that legalized gay marriage getting the justices that voted for it removed because it violated Congress’ arbitrary “moral code.” A sub-impeachment system would certainly be abused for political ends.
I really think this is something that could be argued. You seem to be arguing for a strict interpretation of the constitution rather than a lot of ones we see today that have changed repeatedly and/or made more modern interpretations. A strict interpretation would also mean that the supreme court doesn’t have the power to decide if laws are constitutional or not as that’s not specifically in the constitution nor granted with an amendment.
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-3/
Congress shouldn’t be able to implement arbitrary rules on the Judicial branch any more than the Executive branch should. Internally, SCOTUS already has self-imposed ethics rules that are suppose to be followed; similar to the ethics rules in Congress passed for itself.
What do you think judicial power is? The power to hold dinner parties it’s? It’s literally the power to interpret the law. Its not written because everyone with half a brain can understand that.
Then maybe a super strict “as written” interpretation of the constitution is dumb.
Except that is an “as written” interpretation because it would take intentionally misunderstand to not understand what judicial powers entail. You aren’t making a point against anything, just being dumb.
If you go by the strict interpretation of the constitution, the SC isn’t even the highest court. It’s only the interstate court. They appointed themselves the highest court in a case.
"The court’s power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court (1801–1835).[17] Under Marshall, the court established the power of judicial review over acts of Congress,[18] including specifying itself as the supreme expositor of the Constitution (Marbury v. Madison)[19][20] "
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
So they basically said “I’m in charge because I said so”. That’s precarious at best, and it would just take Congress to say “no you’re not” for it to fall apart.
Which has happened before. That’s what Jackson did during the trail of tears and what FDR threatened to do in the 1930s.