Court Reform: Or Why Do Nine People Hold So Much Power?

A Whackadoodle discussion about the Supreme Court, Court Reform, Dark Money, and whether or not people like you are interested, including links to Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island’s eighteen floor speeches regarding the need for change.

“I still don’t understand why you want to post a bunch of speeches given on the Senate floor on this website,” she said with a sour face. “I mean, how does that fit into our mission? Seems like it’s a whole other thing.”

“Didn’t we write in our mission, ‘If we think an event is impacting your life, we will provide you with accurate information, and practical advice regarding that event. We will be asking a lot of questions because we believe that you should be doing the same?‘

“Yeah,” she admitted slowly.

“Well I think this applies.” I informed her. “This bunch of speeches, as you so politely called them, were given by Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island. It’s a series of eighteen presentations, all about fifteen minutes long, that he’s given on the floor of the Senate over the past few years, and they would make even the best university history professor proud with regards to accuracy of facts and excellence of story telling.”

“What are they about again?”

“Let’s just say that once you’ve watch them, you might understand why the courts, especially the United States Supreme Court, has become so Whackadoodle.”

“But why do you want to place eighteen different links here? Why can’t we just send them to the first link, and they can go from there?” she suggested.

“Because YouTube doesn’t always present them in the right order. Sometimes, it goes from episode three to episode seventeen and back again. I think that they need to be watched in order; so if people get lost on YouTube, they can come back here where we have listed them in order.”

“People are gonna find it boring,” she warned.

“Maybe, maybe not,” I replied with a shrug. “Why don’t we suggest that they watch the first one, and then let them decide if they want to watch the rest at their own pace. I think that they might find it fascinating to learn how their courts work, or in some cases, don’t work. I think that they might be fascinated to know that their courts can be bought, and that nine people with lifetime appointments and little oversite, have the power to decide which laws are constitutional, and which laws are not. It think they might find it fascinating to understand why so many people are calling for court reform.”

“So is that what this is about?” she asked accusingly. “Court reform?”

“Watch the videos, and then you tell me,” I challenged back. “I will say one thing about Senator Whitehouse. He argues with facts that can be proven true. I think he argues well. And there is something even better.”

“What’s that?”

“I guarantee that you will learn something that matters in your daily life.”

“Okay fine,” she sighed. “Let’s post them.”

“I thank you for your permission,” I said bowing. Truth be told, I would have posted them with or without her permission, but sometimes it’s good to get agreement before proceeding.

Anyway, here they are. They are one man’s opinion, but his opinions are well documented. It is your job to decide if you agree or not.

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Episode One: The Powell Report

Episode Two: Powell Groundwork

Episode Three: The Latent Virus

Episode Four: A New Constitutional Right for Dark Money

Episode Five: The Federalist Society

Episode Six: The Judicial Crisis Network

Episode Seven: The Kavanaugh Operation

Episode Eight: Tu Quoque (You To)

Episode Nine: Amicus Flotillas

Episode Ten: Climate Obstruction and The Scheme

Episode Eleven: Faculty Lounge Report

Episode Twelve: JCN’s (Judicial Crisis Network’s) Opening Salvo

Episode Thirteen: “Auditioning” for the Supreme Court

Episode Fourteen: Attacking Roe

Episode Fifteen: The Hothouse and WV v. EPA (West Virginia v. The Environmental Protection Agency)

Episode Sixteen: West Virginia v EPA part. 2

Episode Seventeen:. The Captive Court

Episode Eighteen: Leonard Leo’s $1.6 Billion Payday

To be continued????

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“He ends with a call to action,” she said softly, after she’d watched all eighteen episodes in a marathon. I guess she’d found them more interesting than she’d feared.

“Yes, he does,” I agreed. “The best Senators often do. After all, it’s kind of pointless to point out problems if you can’t offer solutions.”

“He said that we need to pass the Disclose Act,” she mumbled. “What’s the Disclose Act?”

“It’s a law that Senator Whitehouse has sponsored designed to remove dark money from politics. It’s very technical with a lot of legal language, but it gets the job done. It also shows how well versed he is in his subject, and how good his staff is at writing legalize.”

“So what does he think about court reform?” she asked.

“Well, he has co-sponsored another bill called the Term Act, in which a new Supreme Court justice would take the bench every two years and spend 18 years in active service, then retire. It would drastically change how the court works now.”

“What do you think about it?”

“It think that nine people should not hold as much power as they do,” I admitted. “So yeah, I think that we need reform.”

“And if I wanted to answer his call to action, how would I do that?”

“Not a whole lot you can do, but you can contact your elected officials to see if they are supporting the Term Act and the Disclose Act,” I replied. “You can let them know that you support those Acts, and that you will reach out to everyone else in their constituency to make sure those people understand them. You could also reach out to other elected officials and tell them the same thing,” I added. “But let’s face it, our own elected officials are the only ones who really need to listen to us.”

“But how do I contact them?”

“Dang, that should be in Civics 101. Are you really telling me that nobody has taught you how to contact your Representative and Senator? Nobody has taught you how to provide testimony?”

“Not really,” she admitted.

“Okay, so I have some homework for you,” I said, and continued despite her groan. “I want you to visit two website, possibly four. The first website is the House’s Official Site. You just type in your zip code, and up pops your Representative along with all the ways to contact him, or her. The same goes for the Senate’s Official Site. I want you to contact them, and just say hi. Let them know that you are a voter from their District, and that you care about whatever you care about. Just make contact. Start a relationship. Heck, if you want, turn them into a pen pal.”

“That was two websites,” she reminded me. “What are the other two?”

“That would be your State’s version of the same thing. Each state is different. Just reach out,” I suggested. “Get used to using your rights to influence the people who govern you; otherwise,” I stopped, unsure how to finish the sentence.

She finished it for me, saying, “Otherwise, what’s the point of having a democracy, right?”

“Exactly right,” I agreed.

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