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US supreme court

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
i hear that george w bush gets to nominate new candidates for the US supreme court because 2 judges might resign

isnt the american executive supposed to be seperate from the judicary etc? can anyone clarify tihs for me?

also more politically, if he gets to nominate 2 judges,couldnt he upset the balance of power between the judges? this is important since it is the supreme court that has made many things legal in your apparantly so socially & economically liberal such as abortion,gay sex in private as recently reported

also some of the expected nominations are not going to be because of their ability as a judge, but because how scandal free they are, or cause their race (one is hispanic and that just might help mr bush get elected again by the us-hispanic etc)

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Dubya will have taken the "outrageous" decision by the Supreme Court (by a 6 to 3 majority) to overturn homophobic legislation in Texas personally, and will no doubt appoint the two new judges carefully in order to bring some proper Republican moral values into the body. :rolleyes:

    But you are right, it is a very flawed system that the President gets to nominate the judges. Can we really trust Dubya to be impartial in his nomination?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Re: US supreme court
    Originally posted by LonDoNErcHriS85
    i hear that george w bush gets to nominate new candidates for the US supreme court because 2 judges might resign

    isnt the american executive supposed to be seperate from the judicary etc? can anyone clarify tihs for me?


    In a presidential system of government there generally is a seperation of powers.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What happens is that President Bush nominates candidates for the Supreme Court who are then either approved or rejected by the Senate. Although the problem has two main flash points - firstly in the 1980s a lot of Federal judges in the lower courts retired and were replaced by conservative judges by President Reagan - whereas in the past there was an attempt to maintain a balance the 12 years of Republican Presidency of 1980-1992 allowed the lower federal courts to be packed with conservative judges thus restricting the choice of liberal justices to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

    The second flash point was the 2000 election - in 2000 the balance was 5-4 conservative to liberal justices. Two conservative and a liberal justices wanted to retire this therefore means the balance of power was to be decided, however had Al Gore won the conservative justices would have hung on for a Republican President, as Sandra Day O'Connor said on election night 2000, but the liberal Chief Justice William Rehnquist is really old in his 80s/90s and so if he dies he will be replaced by a conservative justice appointed by President Bush giving the conservatives an even bigger majority in the Supreme Court.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    And you can bet the Constitution will be tossed right out the window, giving Ashcroft and co a free reign of terror and indiscriminate imprisonment if that happens.

    We can but pray that Bush is defeated in 2004 and the next administration exposes to the public just how this one betrayed the nation in oh so many policy areas.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    surely someone will shoot em soon? isn't that the american way ...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The justification for having a President submitt names before congress for supreme court judges who can last a lifetime is similar to the justification for having a monarch influence over the government: change won't happen quickly...there will be a sustained influence and it's a moderating influence. It's a balancing act in the US...not just among the power of various branches of the governement, but also in how fast it can change. (As we've seen, the nature of the Presidency can change rapidly...between Clinton and Bush.) The Supreme Court changes slowly...overtime.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    And that means that politically inspired agendas such as those pursued by hardline republican nominees following loyal conservatice lines (regardless of the rhetorical nonsense claiming that the Supreme Court is politically impartial) and stomping all over the public's constitutional liberties or nullifying them altogether will last on and on. Not something that is good for the nation at all.

    The very basis of the Constitution and the division of powers and the right of the public to hold our political leaders fully accountable (now essentially abrogated by this Bush admin with its stonewalling and secrecy) is that we would not be subject to such absolute power as represented in a Monarchy. You need to go back and take some serious civics classes pnj if you dont even have that much realisation of the founding principles of our nation.

    And you have the audacity to suggest Im not an American! :rolleyes: Its you who doesnt seem to even know the fundamental precepts of US governance.

    I might remind you that it was this predominantly conservative Supreme Court which ran roughshod over the rights of the citizenry to a fair and transparent election in 2000 by denying the authority of Florida Supreme Court to order a complete and thorough recount according to a unified standard (thus allowing thousands of votes for Gore to be tossed out and a virtual coup d'etat for the Republican candidate).

    So much for impartiality, justice and Constitutionality being upheld.
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