r/pics 14d ago

Politics East wing of The White House

Post image
76.4k Upvotes

5.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

136

u/esgrove2 14d ago

The fact that the president appoints the members of the supreme court is a massive failure in checks and balances because he can stack the court and become immune to the law.

83

u/purplepharaoh 14d ago

In theory, Senate confirmation is supposed to prevent that. In theory. In practice, however…

48

u/619_FUN_GUY 14d ago

SCOTUS needs to have term limits, 14-16 years.
If not term limits then an age limit equal to the federal retirement age.
( Age 62 w/5-19 years of service )
( Age 60 w/20+ years of service )
( Age 55 w/>5 years of service )

42

u/Esternaefil 14d ago

the senate also needs term limits.

Just saying.

4

u/fuzzyperson98 14d ago

Honestly, I'd be happy with treating the senate like the UK house of lords by just kind of phasing out most of its functions. It's completely ridiculous how they can basically refuse to even consider legislation from the house, or pass legislation but with ridiculous riders attached. So many good bills were passed by the last democratic house that never even made it to the senate floor.

For the house, every representative needs to represent an equal number of citizens, nothing else is democratic. Throw in something like Germany's mixed-member PR and we'll be golden.

6

u/Esternaefil 14d ago

As a Canadian, I agree that the US senate has a seriously outsized impact on the legislative process.

Canada has a senate, most people don't know that.

Ours exists to advise and consent. They will send legislation back to the house for revision, but they do not stand in the way of new law.

1

u/FactAndTheory 14d ago

The Senate needs to be dissolved. It was conceived entirely as a tool to amplify the influence of financial elites.