The major questions doctrine, explained.

  • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    This major questions doctrine, at least as it is understood by the Court’s current majority, emerged almost from thin air in the past several years. And it has been wielded almost exclusively by Republican-appointed justices to invalidate policies created by a Democratic administration. This doctrine is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution. Nor is it mentioned in any federal statute. It appears to have been completely made up by justices who want to wield outsize control over federal policy.

    • delial@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      The President could stop this at any time. All he needs to do is pack the court with more justices to rebalance it. Not doing so makes him complicit.

      Foot meet mouth. I’m an idiot.

      • 😈MedicPig🐷BabySaver😈@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Exactly how does the president do that? He cannot expand the court on his own. Congress doesn’t have enough Democrats to do it. None of the current justices are going anywhere unless they die.

        • conquer4@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Or, charge several of them with taking bribes. As there is plenty of evidence already, they are not above the law.

          • Speff@melly.0x-ia.moe
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            1 year ago

            The moronic general public already thinks holding 45 accountable is “political persecution” source. This is with rocksteady evidence. And now you people are talking about charging R-aligned Justices on loose bribe accusations? Just… no. This is how you fire up their base and hand R’s the election with a supermajority.

            This is the Congress’ job to fix. Want it fixed? Stop relying on the president and start figuring out how to make Congress actually work again.

            • reddwarf@feddit.nl
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              1 year ago

              This is how you fire up their base

              Not sure what more firing up the base needs in your opinion? That part of society is lost for quite a while now and if you think these morons could be ‘pulled back in’ as long as you do not insult/antagonize/etc. is a myth. A dangerous one at that. I would even wager that this attitude of soft gloves to not insult or fail to fairly accommodate the other side is what partially got us here.

              • Speff@melly.0x-ia.moe
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                1 year ago

                The choices aren’t Democrats or Republicans. It’s Democrat, Republican, or stay at home and not vote. I’m not dumb enough to think people are willing to change positions easily these days. But R’s just got fed some good red meat (Dobbs), which means some of them will become complacent. There isn’t one issue at the moment which motivates their base as good as abortion, which is why they’re flailing around and trying to demonize trans folk

                • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  The choices aren’t Democrats or Republicans. It’s Democrat, Republican, or stay at home and not vote.

                  Staying home and not voting is a vote for Republicans. The GOP are still beating the abortion drum by pushing for national bans and even more restrictions on abortion in the states where it’s still legal. Demonizing trans kids is their new boogeyman to keep those who are past the abortion issue in line and make sure that there’s something new for them to fear.

                  The GOP are masters at scaring their voters to the polls, and one of the things they hope for is that Democrat voters stay home in “protest”. You’re not protesting anything by staying home. You’re helping the GOP.

            • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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              1 year ago

              Ending the fillibuster would do a lot to make change, but in part the cery purpose of it is to force some measure of consensus by preventing a simple mahority from steamrolling the minority. When one side refuses ANY level of meaningful compromise however you get trades that are so massivly out of balance as to be counterproductive to the wishes of any progressive movement.

              • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Ending the fillibuster would do a lot to make change, but in part the cery purpose of it is to force some measure of consensus by preventing a simple mahority from steamrolling the minority.

                This is why I’m actually against removing the filibuster. Yes, Democrats would be able to make some short term gains in the process. But all it would lead to is the GOP just taking note of everything the Democrats did and just reversing it all on day one the minute they regain power. And then after that, we get to sit back and watch as they continue to steamroll over other rights as well.

                I really don’t want to live in a society where my rights are dictated by the whims of whatever party is in power and likely to change multiple times a decade.

          • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They made the case for removal twice against Trump. It did exactly nothing.

            Unless you have 67 senators willing to remove them, none of it matters. And right now, I have a better chance of getting blown by every one of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders in alphabetical order than getting 15 or so Republican senators to be willing to remove one of their own.

        • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Everyone chip in to make sure all the conservative justices have free chicken and big macs at all times. While signing up the liberal justices for free gym memberships.

          Just pointing out there is a public mailing address for the supreme court that I’m sure would happily forward gift certificates, and a chik fil a almost within shouting distance. Don’t make them walk too far, it’d defeat the purpose.

        • delial@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          You’re right, and I’m an idiot. The US is truly and royally fucked. At this point it’s an unsalvageable shit-show slaughter-fest of slavery and oppression.

  • cerevant@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    …and the Senate put itself in charge of the Judicial branch. Anything the President could do to offset either power grab is checked by the Senate. We need to stop pretending that the Presidential election is the most important.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Local elections have a lot more impact on your quality of life, and there’s usually at least one every year.

      The key to voting, as shown by the Evangelicals managing to overturn Roe, is to do it consistently. Every primary, every election, for decades. Unfortunately that’s what it takes to effect change in our system of government.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They do have more impact in general, but national allows malicious actors to overrule local laws and suppress votes.

        Both are critical even though I agree people should increase their focus on local politics.

        • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Agreed, but state elections can also allow malicious actors to overrule federal mandates, like Medicaid. Besides, if you vote in every election you vote in the federal ones, too.

        • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Getting good people elected to local offices also builds a pipeline of people qualified for higher office. (Although, here in Georgia, there’s also a habit of running or appointing “outsiders” to high office whenever possible)

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        You mean you aren’t supposed to just bitch about how your elected official didn’t magically do everything you wanted and then stop voting?

  • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’d be fine with a Presidential Review of the Supreme Court every four years offset by two years of the Presidential election. This would allow a President to replace members of the Supreme Court with a simple majority of the House and Senate as part of the conformation of a new judge. The President would have to justify the replacement for criminal or ethical reasons confirmed by both houses of Congress.

    • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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      I’d be fine with a Presidential Review of the Supreme Court every four years offset by two years of the Presidential election. This would allow a President to replace members of the Supreme Court with a simple majority of the House and Senate as part of the conformation of a new judge. The President would have to justify the replacement for criminal or ethical reasons confirmed by both houses of Congress.

      This would be great until Trump 2.0 comes along and throws out liberal judges he doesn’t like or that he knows won’t rule in his favor, backed by a complicit Congress. We just got finished with four years off watching one man almost singlehandedly corrupt every single branch of government with ease, so it’s not like this idea is far fetched.

      Rulings would no longer be about what is (supposed to be) best for the American people but instead would be about what rulings to give so they can keep their cushy jobs, especially when the White House and Congress are both controlled by the same party.

      I understand the sentiment behind trying to get the corrupt judges off the bench, but this would likely just make the situation worse, not better.

    • hypna@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Netanyahu’s legislation would give the Knesset the power to overrule their Supreme Court with a simple majority vote. I’ve not seen anyone make an argument for such extreme measures to redress the US Supreme Court, and certainly not in this article. The most common arguments I’ve seen are,

      • Impose a Code of Ethics, and possibly to impeach the most obviously compromised justices
      • Add term limits, possibly retroactively
      • Expand the court

      These all have risks, but so does taking no action.