Synkope1 t1_iypufy9 wrote
Reply to comment by Artisanal_Shitposter in We're Tom Wolf,Eliza Sweren-Becker, and Ethan Herenstein. We work on democracy reform at the Brennan Center for Justice. Ask us anything about the Supreme Court’s upcoming case Moore v. Harper and the “independent state legislature” theory. by TheBrennanCenter
It's not just recently that the Supreme Court has been that way. They often have worked backward from the outcome they desired, it's how you get originalism and textualism as legal theories. The only thing that stops them from doing something as egregious as what you are saying is them trying to maintain the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. There is theoretically a line that the Supreme Court could cross in which state and federal governments would just say, "No, you've overstepped too far and we're not going to listen to that decision." The Supreme Court has no way to enforce its own decisions, it has to rely on other branches agreeing that its decisions are legitimate to enforce their decisions.
AxelShoes t1_iyrbsx6 wrote
Probably the most famous example was President Andrew Jackson just completely ignoring a Supreme Court decision in the 1830s regarding Cherokee sovereignty against the state of Georgia. He's alleged to have responded to the ruling by saying, "[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." Whether he said those words or not, that was definitely his sentiment, and he simply refused to enforce the Court's decision.
Synkope1 t1_iyrk13j wrote
Oh yea, an example I heard recently was regarding a Oklahoma state supreme court case of the execution of Clayton Lockett. The Supreme Court of Oklahoma had issued a stay of execution (since the state has been unable to obtain the necessary drugs for a lethal injection and was planning to use an untested cocktail that would ultimately end up torturing him for 40 something minutes until he died) and the Governor issued and executive order that the execution would continue and the legislature began impeachment proceedings on the justices until they reversed the stay.
Just something to consider when the republicans eventually say "You can't just not listen to what the Supreme Court says!!"
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments