Ron DeSantis Praises Clarence Thomas as 'Gold Standard'

https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-praises-clarence-thomas-gold-standard-1802445

#Newsweek #RonDeSantis #ClarenceThomas #SupremeCourtJustice #ConservativeValues #GoldStandard #JudicialPhilosophy #Politics #News

@dustcircle

This seems the whole point of Stare Decisis. Lots of laws are vague and people challenge them, causing courts to fill gaps.

If the legislature disagrees, it can override precedent set by the court by creating an actual law. But to keep from having a lot of trivial laws that say "Yeah, that thing the court said", we just assume that if the legislature has had a long-time ability to change things and chose not to, it must be right.

Stare Decisis is in some ways, oddly, a bit like the "Like" button on social media, which is there to avoid a lot of "me too" posts. If the court says something and the public agrees, it can just leave the court case unchallenged and is supposed to eventually be taken as something firm without having to do more.

This is why it's so VERY improper for judges (or the recent crop of people ironically called justices) to be going back and reconsidering these cases. They treat it as no small matter, and even an oversight, that no one has intervened. But it's a big deal, because they are overriding the fact that majorities for a long time have, in their own way, already said "Like".

They make the flimsy claim that they have wanted to but haven't had the votes, not realizing they are saying "our position was not the consensus position". That's not how Democracy works.

And it's only made worse when you see the whole SCOTUS appointment system heavily leveraged to allow popular minorities excess power and to allow false statements by candidates to go unchecked. The Supreme Court is supposed to be about something beyond the popular vote, but that doesn't mean it's supposed to be about private capture of the Court for a selfish purpose. Something way out of kilter there. Not even an enforceable code of ethics among those who seem clearly to have lied to get there, especially on a point so important as policy about Stare Decisis.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. But I think this is something we all need to discuss in a nation responsive to the people.

#Law #Abortion #ReproductiveRights #CaseLaw #StareDecisis #Judges #Justices #SCOTUS #philosophy #JudicialPhilosophy