Changes in the Court System in the Coming Decades
The US Supreme and federal courts have experienced tension, which appears to shape the decision-making process due to the increasing polarization across the country. Delay in the filling of the supreme court judges after the death of Scalia is one of the indicators that polarization in the US has penetrated in the judicial system (Hasen, 2020, Par. 5). Despite Justification, Mitch McConnell, a Republican in the senate, was tactical to provide a chance to Trump in replacing Scalia with a similar republican oriented judge (Hasen, 2020, Par. 8). Increased polarization across political parties and citizens affects the selection and work of the judges and the power balance between federal and state judges. The dominating political party will have an opportunity to place more judges in the supreme and federal courts leading to a decision based on partisan agendas as opposed to ideologies.
Similar to citizens and political leaders, judges subscribe to some ideologies which make them prefer one political party over the other. Such orientations to political parties might affect their decisions in the court in case they do not follow moral ethics to base their decisions on ideologies (Hulse, 2018, Par. 4). However, other factors make judges base their decisions on political party agendas, for example, selection based on friendship or other forms of relationships. The presidents in previous years have been selecting judges based on ideologies and not attachment or need to spearhead political party ideologies. As a result, the court has been nonpartisan to defend the constitution and the rule of law. However, the current trend, as seen in the delay to replace Scalia takes the US back to the times when presidents selected judges to support their political careers. In the coming decades, the court system will change from administering justice and protecting the constitution to fostering political ideologies with several other issues below.
Among the changes which will occur is the nonconsideration of the precedent cases when making a decision. There will be a reduction in referring to the precedent cases and overruling previous decisions. Most of the earlier cases were based on ideologies and truth and might not agree with the judge’s need to support the political ideologies of the sitting president (Hulse, 2018, Par. 5). Such presidents who select judges based on friendship and political ideologies hardly follow the law including in elections and application of previous cases in decision making might affect them negatively. As a result, there will be a reduction in the use of precedent cases in the coming decade. Another way through which the court system will change is through the interpretation of the constitution. There will be unpredictable approaches to solving constitutional question since such will depend on whether it affects the ruling political party positively or negatively and the general public perception. The majority of judges will have to follow direction from the political leaders and especially the president in deciding cases that affect the government’s policies. In that case, it will be hard to predict the case outcome based on constitutional law.
In conclusion, the increasing polarization in the US affects the appointment of judges starting from the current bench in the Supreme court. Judges will no longer have the autonomy to employ ideologies in deciding cases. The court system, in general, will be under control by the ruling government since the president appoints the judges. There will be a change from deciding cases based in ideologies and constitutional law to protecting political party agendas. The court will shift from justice to providing control on the ruling political parties and those who subscribe to the ideologies.
Reference List
Hasen, R., 2020. The Supreme Court May No Longer Have the Legitimacy to Resolve a Disputed Election. [online] Theatlantic.com. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/supreme-court-elections/605899/[Accessed 11 Jun. 2020].
Hulse, C., 2018. Political Polarization Takes Hold of the Supreme Court. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/us/politics/political-polarization-supreme-court.html [Accessed 11 Jun. 2020].
