Posted 5:07 PM by Gene

The time has come to amend the Constitution to allow for the DIRECT ELECTION of the SUPREME COURT, with TERM LIMITS. In writing our Constitution the Founding Fathers did all sorts of things suggesting, for all their brilliance and insight, they didn't think enough -- no Bill of Rights (in the original), no clear means of Presidential succession, the Electoral College. They further assumed that a brilliant man like John Adams would always be around to appoint a brilliant man like John Marshall, and all would be well. They never figured on nakedly political defenses of the indefensible like Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson. They never ventured on the Supremes as a concerted partisan force, on reactionaries so dead set in their rulings they could move an FDR to his foolish court-packing scheme. They never imagined the court as a second legislature, engaged in social engineering and "justice" through international law. They never foresaw a William Rehnquist showing up for arguments with a hole in his throat, trying to prove to the world he was WELL with terminal cancer. The time has come to put these long-winded fingers in the air in their place. Since the Nine Fingers are invariably engaged in politics, let's make it official and have them run for office with party affiliations. This way too they don't get to be cutesy-pie and avoid direct discussion of the issues. Moreover the notion of the permanent appointment is an anachronism harkening to the days when the Founders still quaked with memories of British tyranny. Our government is already big enough that we have it permanently, and BIGMEDIA help out with their own. No, let the Nine Fingers be accountable just like anyone else, if government officials can any longer be so held. Give the people the right to determine our justice system. We're not that stupid -- at least we're no more stupid than men who obfuscate for a living.