Republicans might have won a majority in the country’s highest court but it has lost legitimacy at a critical moment
The saga of judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the supreme court is over, and it is time for the credits to roll. Top billing will go to a Republican president and his allies in the Senate who were willing to allow norms to be steamrollered and justice to be short-changed in the pursuit of a reliable conservative majority on the court. But the greatest cost of all for Republican ambition will be paid by the supreme court in its most precious coin: legitimacy.
The supreme court can enable or block sweeping changes in US life. The court’s legitimacy as it does so rests on the public’s faith that its decisions can cut both ways. At a time when partisanship filters public perception of nearly everything that happens in political life, the supreme court retains an aura of non-partisan rectitude that the other branches of government long ago squandered. Just as we accept losing democratic elections because we know we could win the next one, the supreme court has weathered unpopular decisions because even disaffected groups retained faith that the long arc of justice would eventually bend back in their direction.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2E3D9AO
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