The US Supreme Court has been hijacked by the extreme right and corrupted to its core. American oligarchs bestow millions in gifts and largesse on right-wing justices, who hand down deeply unpopular decisions that take away long-settled rights, concentrate power for themselves and their friends, and grease the electoral rails for their party.
According to a new Gallup poll, Americans have a historic lack of trust in the courts, with only 35% having faith in the judiciary, a record low. This collapse in judicial faith is unprecedented and can be compared to the faith lost in dictatorships, banana republics, and military juntas.
The numbers are staggering and historic, with the judiciary’s confidence underwater among those who approve and disapprove of the nation’s leadership. It’s not surprising that Americans have lost all faith in an unelected body with a majority appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote, granted lifetime fiefdoms to cast final judgment over acts of the elected branches, without any accountability or ethics code.
Democrats have refused to make the case for reforming a captured court, despite its widespread unpopularity and even during a close and bitterly contested race for the White House. They squandered an opportunity to reform the court, including term limits for Supreme Court justices and a binding ethics code, which share support from nearly 70% of all Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike.
The Democratic party’s failure to address judicial reform goes beyond this most recent campaign. They had a trifecta in Washington after the 2020 election and made no serious effort on judicial reform. The judiciary committee botched every opportunity to hold hearings and demand accountability after the revelations of vacations and other gifts awarded to the conservative justices.
The Roberts court has granted Trump unprecedented power in his second term thanks to its decision in his immunity case. Those new powers will come with virtually no accountability. The right’s near-complete capture of the federal judiciary has ensured that it will remain in charge for decades to come regardless of who sits in the White House.
The new Gallup poll confirms that Americans fully understand that the anti-democratic courts have achieved this unaccountable supremacy. If only Americans also had a political party ready and willing to fight back on their behalf.
