SCOTUS should follow the polls
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Sez Justice Kagan.
In her first public comments since the court’s conservative supermajority voted to overturn Roe v Wade last month, the liberal justice said straying from public opinion and longstanding precedent risked the court’s legitimacy, the Washington Post reported.
“I’m not talking about any particular decision or even any particular series of decisions, but if over time the court loses all connection with the public and with public sentiment, that’s a dangerous thing for a democracy,” Justice Kagan said to an audience of 500 judges and attorneys at a judicial conference in Montana on Thursday.
“Overall, the way the court retains its legitimacy and fosters public confidence is by acting like a court, is by doing the kinds of things that do not seem to people political or partisan,” she added.
Justice Kagan, who has served on the court since 2010, was one of three dissenting votes on last month’s decision to end constitutional rights to reproductive health rights.
Full stop. There is no constitutional right to "reproductive health rights." Abortion is permitted, and, Justice Kagan, if the people of the state want to permit or deny it, let them elect representatives who will act accordingly, because, in your words, "democracy."
In fact, Justice Kagan, why not do away with SCOTUS altogether and just have government by poll? Alastair Reynolds would approve.
