Faith lost in the U.S. supreme court

Do Americans believe that the U.S supreme court decide cases free of partisan political bias? According to one poll 75% of Americans say no. That result was reported by the Wall Street Journal law blog, Businessweek, and others. That result specifically applies to the court's current consideration of the Obamacare law. If it applies to that case, it probably applies to all others.

 STS 122 launch

February 7, 2008

No surprise

That should not surprise anyone. Democratic nominees to the supreme court have to pass tests or not be nominated, e.g., pro-labor, anti-management, pro-abortion. Republican nominees have to pass tests, anti-labor, pro-management, anti-abortion, or not be nominated. That's no secret. Partisan politics trumps everything else, i.e., serving the public interest, in selection of federal judges.

So what? Its just politics

If the poll is correct, most Americans believe that the U.S. supreme court is partisan. That reality can reasonably contribute to Americans' loss of faith in the one institution (the federal judiciary) that at least some of them think isn't partisan, or isn't supposed to be. That belief is misplaced and wrong. The problem is that once too much faith in too much of government is lost, government cannot necessarily function in the best interests of the public. As argued here before, that can cause bad things to happen.

Once too much faith in governments is lost, democrats and republicans can find themselves governing without the consent of the governed. Regardless of how the supreme court decides the Obamacare case, pollution of the federal judiciary by petty partisan ideological politics is another perfectly good reason to lose faith in government and whatever decision the court comes to, especially if it is a 5-4 decision along the obvious partisan ideological divide.