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Yep, the Supreme Court really is just a House of Lords—a purely political branch with bizarre veto power, wielded capriciously and without accountability. Time for massive reform.

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To expand: The UK's reactionary House of Lords once had a powerful veto that it would use to block liberal legislation from the House of Commons—including a gov't budget in 1909. So the Liberals threatened to pack it—with *500* more members. The Lords backed down & let their veto to be weakened.

ukconstitutionallaw.orgFrancis Young: “Packing” the Lords: Some Legal ReflectionsThe recent string of Government defeats in the House of Lords over amendments to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill has reignited the debate over the role of the Lords in a modern democracy. The …

To put that figure in context, the Liberal threat would have roughly doubled the size of the House of Lords in one fell swoop. If you're thinking court packing, think big. Much bigger than 13.

Add another 9 seats, split the court into two divisions by seniority, and jurisdiction for all meaningful cases goes to the most junior division. Nobody loses their life tenure, but they can’t do any more damage.

The german high court system is split into multiple courts (6 of them). The court for constitutional stuff has 16 judges split up into two chambers sitting for terms of 12 years with mandatory retirement at 68. The final court of appeals for civil and criminal cases has 153 judges and 19 divisions.

My version is - 18 year limit as voting judge, after that you still get to hang out, have clerks, hear cases, etc. you just can’t vote on a case.

The HoL that you’re referring to hasn’t ever been a court. It’s an archaic second house of parliament with relatively limited powers. There was an unconnected, HoL of 12 apolitical judges - the UK’s final court of appeal. It was renamed the UK Supreme Court in 2009 - partly to avoid the confusion

My proposal: The Court of Review. Congress can "constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court" and make "Exceptions" and "Regulations" to SCOTUS appellate jurisdiction. So create the "Court of Review" as an appellate court between the 13 Circuit Courts and SCOTUS. 1/5

13 seats on the Court of Review: one circuit court judge from each circuit. The President doesn't appoint them; they are appointed by a 2/3rds majority vote of the judges on their circuit. They sit for a term of years (5 years, for example) and then can be reappointed. 2/5

The "2/3rds of judges" requirement will tend to select for judges with bipartisan respect rather than partisan hacks. And the need to keep 2/3rds of their circuit happy with their rulings will discourage them from trying to use their position for judicial activism and idealogical crusades. 3/5

All appeals go through the Court of Review. Anything they resolve by a 2/3rds majority (9-4 or better) is final; SCOTUS will have no jurisdiction over those cases. SCOTUS will review 8-5 or 7-6 cases. And SCOTUS can review only final judgments, not interlocutory appeals. No more shadow docket. 4/5

Truth be told, I don't think there should be anyone under 40 on the supreme court. I want to seasoned jurist with experience and wisdom. Not some clown with a half ass record.

The reform needs to be with our society and electorate, because that’s what caused this problem. Not a broken document. If we don’t elect horrible people, we’ll do better. It’s not that hard, and yet...

The Senate is anti democratic, and should be abolished. Or, randomly pick temporary Senators from the house for duties held only by the Senate.

This is how will backfire Dummy-mander. To create more republican districts the overall republican vote must be diluted. The reduced margins can create a scenario in a wave election where the shift overcomes the new republican majorities drawn in a map like this.

SC does know that in a dictatorship they serve no purpose, right? At best they’d conduct show trials, but the idea that a court would ever make a ruling the dictator would disapprove of is laughable. Judges in Russia know who’s in charge, and it ain’t them. Facts & evidence don’t matter.

On both sides its a weak analogy. The Law Lords (the SCOTUS counterpart) were professional judges appointed in a non partisan manner Of the ordinary peers - capricious - is not a way I'd describe the house at all. Even in the past The present L's is far less partisan than the HoC (or congress)

I think there's a pretty crucial difference between a legislative body being partisan & a judicial one. The latter is far worse (imo). All law making is partisan to some degree. But all laws should be applied equally & fairly to everyone. I don't think the house of lords analogy is very good.

Poor analogy. You are confusing Legislative and Judicial branches and actions WRT the UK HoL. Context. Before 2009 a small subset of the UK HoL - 12 Law Lords were the UKs final court of appeal. By convention they didn’t vote or speak on Legislative matters. The rest of the HoL were Legislators.