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The general argument for why Supreme Court justices are appointed, not elected is to limit the effect of political partisan bias and public influence. As the supreme legal body, we don't want them being bought off by rich donors in an election and most Americans are frankly too clueless to elect someone with adequate legal knowledge. Appointed by the President and confirmation by the Senate is intended to be a thorough vetting to make sure the justice is cut out for the job and will hopefully have an unbiased application of the law.
Judges are in the lower level circuit and district courts that hear criminal and civil cases. Justices are judges who sit on appellate courts.
The general argument for why Supreme Court justices are appointed, not elected is to limit the effect of political partisan bias and public influence. As the supreme legal body, we don't want them being bought off by rich donors in an election and most Americans are frankly too clueless to elect someone with adequate legal knowledge. Appointed by the President and confirmation by the Senate is intended to be a thorough vetting to make sure the justice is cut out for the job and will hopefully have an unbiased application of the law.
If I was to want ay changes, I would want a 55 minimum age. There are minimum age requirements for POTUS, House and Senate. I feel SCOTUS requires an additional wisdom that could be gained by age. Plus with a high minimum age, if the appointee ends up being a huge mistake, you only have to deal with it for 25-30 years.
The general argument for why Supreme Court justices are appointed, not elected is to limit the effect of political partisan bias and public influence. As the supreme legal body, we don't want them being bought off by rich donors in an election and most Americans are frankly too clueless to elect someone with adequate legal knowledge. Appointed by the President and confirmation by the Senate is intended to be a thorough vetting to make sure the justice is cut out for the job and will hopefully have an unbiased application of the law.
Judges are in the lower level circuit and district courts that hear criminal and civil cases. Justices are judges who sit on appellate courts.
The same was said for US Senators too.
Now look at the states representation in DC.
Big money buys their seat to get them there, but every now and then someone special beats all the money thrown at them.
02-14-2015, 05:15 PM
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n/a posts
Look at Alabama last week to see why judges should not be elected. We have judges openly defying federal law because if they don't, they won't win their next election.
I want SCOTUS making decisions based on the constitution and the law, not making up decisions to please their donors and win elections.
For the most part our system works pretty well, although we do still have the occasional ideologue like Scalia who makes a decision and then goes fishing for legal justification to support what he'd already decided.
Why can't we elect those 9 justices?
Don't also understand they are called Justices instead of Judges, what's the difference
I was just reading something related to this in a book. Flyers is right in saying that the Judicial branch ( which includes SCOTUS) needs to be independent. Apparently, in 1790, the House wanted to impeach a Chief Justice whose decisions they vociferously disagreed with. When put to a vote by the Senate, the Senate almost unaminously agreed that the SCOTUS needed to be independent of the other branches. It's called the Judiciary Act of 1790.
why can't we? I believe it is in the constitution and do you have any idea how hard it would be to make such a change? I do have a problem with it being a lifetime appointment, but still it is the way it is. As for a min age, no way should that be a factor in deciding who should be appointed.
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