Longtime readers of this newsletter will know that I am a strong advocate of Supreme Court reform. The court, as I’ve argued many times, exists within the constitutional system and not outside it. It does not have the sole power to interpret the Constitution, and it is subject to congressional regulation.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon seems to agree. On Wednesday he introduced a sweeping package of Supreme Court reforms aimed at the abuses of the past decade, most of all the extent to which the Republican Party has gamed the nomination process to its advantage.
The signature part of the proposal is a plan to expand the court by six members, from nine to 15. The expansion would be staggered over 12 years, with one new appointment every first and third year of a term. Along with the Supreme Court, Wyden would expand the rest of the federal judiciary, adding two circuits and dozens of new circuit and district court judgeships.
Additionally, Wyden would establish a supermajority threshold the court would have to meet to overturn acts of Congress, and he would establish a process that would require the Senate to eventually attend to any Supreme Court nomination lingering in committee, a response to Senator Mitch McConnell’s blocking of Merrick Garland in 2016.
Recognizing the Supreme Court’s recent reliance on the shadow docket, Wyden would require, according to his office, “public disclosure of how each justice voted for any case within the appellate jurisdiction” of the court, and he would require all justices to make their written opinions publicly available. And to address the conflict of interest scandals that have swirled around Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Wyden would require the I.R.S. to regularly audit each justice’s income tax returns, after which, they would be released to the public. He would also require all court nominees “to include their most recent three years of tax returns in their publicly available financial disclosure filings.”
This isn’t a perfect piece of legislation. It is an open question, constitutionally, whether Congress can bar the Supreme Court from deciding cases with a simple majority. To give the court broad authority to manage its appellate jurisdiction is, implicitly, to give it the right to choose its own procedures, in the same way that the Senate and the House of Representatives have the right to choose their own rules. Likewise, the disclosure requirement for tax returns looks as though it may run into its own legal and constitutional issues.
Then again, as a package, the Wyden bill is dead on arrival. There is almost no chance that it could pass in this Congress or the next one. But it could get Democrats talking seriously about court reform and thinking, in concrete terms, about what is feasible. Serious court reform is essential if Democrats hope to have any chance of meaningfully governing, much less moving their agenda forward. With any luck, Wyden’s bill will get the conversation started on what it might look like to make the courts accountable again.
What I Wrote
My Tuesday column was on the undecided voter — or, I should say, the uninterested voter.
One of the distortions inevitably produced by political media is the idea that most Americans are highly engaged with partisan politics. When we want a sense of the typical person, we look to social media or go into the field to talk to people wherever they’re available, from diners and churches to rallies and other political events. But the kinds of people you see on social media or the kinds of people who are willing to talk to you, a stranger, about their political views in real life fall into the same category of American as the people telling the stories and building the overarching narratives — that is, people who care about politics and who have, in one way or another, made it a part of their identity.
My Friday column was on the fact that the filibuster is redundant if what you want is a slow-moving legislature that privileges deliberation.
If a political party wins multiple and overlapping electoral majorities on its platform, if it manages to build an actual legislative package, if it can move that package through two chambers of Congress — which is to say, multiple committees that, at any point, could exercise their own vetoes — then that party deserves a chance to vote on its program without needing to assemble a supermajority just to act.
And in the latest episode of my podcast with John Ganz, we discussed the 1997 thriller “The Devil’s Own.”
Now Reading
Ryu Spaeth on the return of Ta-Nehisi Coates for New York magazine.
Rick Perlstein on presidential polling for The American Prospect.
Moira Donegan on women in journalism for The Guardian.
Jessica T. Mathews on the emerging nuclear arms race for The New York Review of Books.
“Frontline” on Clarence and Ginni Thomas.
Photo of the Week
I took this photo during a trip to Cambridge in Britain this year. I was speaking at a conference and had a little time to walk around and explore.
Now Eating: Sticky Toffee Whole-Wheat Date Cake
I received a box of California dates from a friend and used them to make this cake, which was well received by my wife and one of my children. (The other wasn’t a big fan.) The recipe comes from New York Times Cooking.
Ingredients
14 tablespoons/200 grams unsalted butter (1¾ sticks), at room temperature, more for the pan
8 ounces/225 grams pitted dates, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup/80 grams dried currants
1 cup/130 grams whole-wheat flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/80 grams all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
¾ cup/165 grams packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup/170 grams agave nectar
½ cup/110 grams packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons/28 grams unsalted butter
Fleur de sel
Directions
Make the cake: Heat oven to 325 degrees and butter an 8-inch square or 9-inch round cake pan.
In a small pot, combine dates, lemon juice and ¾ cup/180 milliliters water. Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer gently until dates soften and start to fall apart, about 6 minutes. Add currants to the pot and set aside to cool completely.
While date mixture cools, stir together whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and salt.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in vanilla and cooled date mixture, followed by flour mixture.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading evenly and smoothing the surface. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
Meanwhile, make the sticky toffee: In a small pot (you can use the same one you used for the dates), combine agave, brown sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, whisking to dissolve sugar. Once sugar dissolves and bubbles, remove from heat and swirl in butter.
When the cake comes out of the oven, spoon half the sticky toffee over it and let cool in the pan on a wire rack. (It will soak into the cake.)
When the cake has cooled completely and the remaining sticky toffee has thickened, spread it over the cake with an offset spatula. Sprinkle with fleur de sel and serve. Store, loosely wrapped, at room temperature for up to 2 days.
The post One Senator’s Vision for Supreme Court Accountability appeared first on New York Times.