Recommended Reading

Jeffrey Toobin compares Obama to F.D.R. and also talks about court-packing.

Ever since I first learned about the Supreme Court back in Junior High School (I think it was), I've thought that it was an oddly-devised institution in this regard. Everything it does turns on who's on the court at that particular moment and this changes almost because of chance: Who's well? Who's getting too old? One of these days, the luck o' the draw is going to allow some Chief Exec to name a huge chunk of new justices. It might swing the court wildly to the left or wildly to the right…but the losing side will then mount a campaign for term limits or some other alteration that would prevent any president from appointing more than a justice or two per term.