Op-Ed: Can the Supreme Court ever stay above the political fray again?
Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court may be the most divisive in a half-century. In the words of Sen. Susan Collins, one of the decisive votes in favor of his confirmation, the Senate’s “advise and consent role was thrown into a tailspin.”
The question now is whether the Supreme Court is pulled down too. With a closely divided Senate, and a deeply divided country, can the nation’s highest court be kept above party politics? Is it worth it to try? We asked four experts about what needs to happen after this bruising battle.
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A list of major politicized court nominations over the last 80 years, a history leading up to the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
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Many things are broken, and perhaps beyond repair, in our process of appointing Supreme Court justices.
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The rule of law is supposed to be different from enforcing policy preferences.
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The veneer of non-partisan neutrality surrounding the Marble Temple has been wearing thin for decades.
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The Senate has failed to protect the legitimacy of the court as an institution able to rise above politics by indicating it is acceptable to add to the bench a person who trampled time-honored norms against judges engaging in partisan attacks.
