Ezra Klein on why we shouldn't be surprised that the U.S. Supreme Court has become so political.
I've often thought that one thing that really doesn't make sense about that highest of courts is that its makeup hinges so much on an unpredictable factor like life expectancy. It's usually worked out that there's around one vacancy in each four-year presidential term. But some day, there's going to come a period when a number of justices will all go at the same time and some president is going to be called on to fill three or four seats. All of a sudden, the party that's not in power will be screaming that it's not fair; that one Prez can't make so many lifetime selections, thereby skewing the court his way for decades to come. They'll be demanding constitutional amendments to prevent that from ever happening again…but then it'll be too late. Imagine if Obama got to replace three Conservatives or Bush had gotten to replace three Liberals. You think this country is polarized now?