Replying to a message of Gene McAloon to Adam Flinton:

 GM> From: Gene McAloon 

 >> How so? Is your supreme court "independant" or
"appointed"?

 GM> On the state level, it varies. On the federal level, it is appointed
 GM> and that for life. It is the latter that guarantees its independence. 
 GM> That explains why who gets appointed is such a political issue
 GM> starting with Reagan trying to pack the court with far-right
 GM> extremists as Bush is still doing today.

The first executive to try to pack the Supreme Court was Roosevelt minor. 
And despite the bad press he got his wish anyway, the Court stopped killing
his socialist programs - and in the course of his administration he ended
up appointing most of the judges on the Court anyway.

 But once appointed, no one
 GM> can touch them, especially not the executive branch. The president
 GM> has no control of the federal bench whatsoever. Congress has some
 GM> control, mostly through funding and what crimes are to be heard by
 GM> federal courts, but that is about it and at that rarely exercises
 GM> what little control it has.

True.  It's a pity that *both* sides try to pack the court with their own
ideologues instead of people who will stick to the Constitution..

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