Summary: WHAT IF… We Required More of our Courts?

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This is the third and last in our series exploring the three branches of government our Founders designed to serve us, not rule us.

The Judicial branch was brilliantly designed by our Founders - but power can corrupt.  This branch carries one hard difference:  Presidents can be voted out and members of Congress defeated at the polls, while our Constitution gives federal judges their seats for life.

This is not a left problem or a right problem.  Both parties have appointed judges who exceeded their authority, manipulated the confirmation process, and complained about overreach only when a ruling went the other way.

We would never run any serious organization the way we run our courts.  A healthy organization hires well, develops its people, manages them, and holds them accountable.  For the most powerful lifetime positions in America, we do almost none of it.

The challenge is to hold the Supreme Court - and every federal judge - accountable for applying the Constitution rather than twisting it for preference, profit, or power - and to have that accountability itself be pure.  This happened on our watch, which means it is ours to fix 

The question is not “Who do we blame?” but “What if?”

Here are seven reasonable standards for our federal courts:

#1 - What if character mattered most?

We ask the same question we asked of our presidents and our Congress, because the answer is the same:  without good character at the foundation, every structural reform is a sandcastle. 

Let’s confirm only federal judges of proven good character - fully committed to applying the Constitution and the law, regardless of who appointed them.  The robe is not a license;  it is a responsibility.

#2 - What if we developed principled judges before they reached the bench?

The Constitution requires nothing to become a federal judge - no minimum age, no legal experience, not even a law degree - and there is no nonpartisan system to develop and test candidates on how faithfully they apply the law. 

We fill the most powerful lifetime positions in America with less structure than most businesses use to hire a receptionist. 

Let’s build a nonpartisan pipeline - training, mentoring, and merit-based standards - so the President and Senate choose from a pool already proven on fidelity to the Constitution rather than loyalty to a party.

#3 - What if judges kept growing in their craft?

Getting the right people on the bench is only the beginning;  judges serve careers that can last thirty or forty years, today largely on their own. 

Let’s have every federal judge, including every Supreme Court justice, take part in regular, nonpartisan peer formation - working groups studying real cases and asking the hard question:  Was the law applied as written, or rewritten to reach a preferred result?  It sharpens the mind - iron sharpens iron - and threatens no one’s independence, because it corrects through learning, not consequences.

#4 - What if judges applied the law instead of making law?

Interpreting and applying the law as written is the court’s job.  Rewriting it is not.  When courts invent rights the Constitution never granted - or ignore rights it plainly protects - they are unconstitutionally revising our laws. 

The remedy is not a different ideology on the bench, but a restored commitment to the actual job:  Asking not what the law should say, but what it does say.

#5 - What if every judge were held accountable - and fit to serve?

When a judge crosses an ethical line or can no longer do the job, very little happens - and for the Supreme Court, almost nothing. 

Citizens need a single, binding, enforceable ethics code for every federal judge, a clear nonpartisan standard of fitness, and a real process:  Anyone may bring a concern to a nonpartisan body that screens out the frivolous, investigates the facts, and decides - with consequences in fair proportion to the situation. 

The boundary:  This judges conduct, ethics, and fitness, never the content of a ruling.

#6 - What if Congress fulfilled its oversight role without political bias?

The Senate confirms every federal judge, yet the confirmation process has become political theater - one side blocking nominees for years, the other turning hearings into ideological auditions. 

Let’s set a new standard:  every nominee gets a timely hearing and vote within 90 days, and hearings focus solely on qualifications, judicial philosophy, and demonstrated character - not extracting political promises. 

Justice delayed is justice denied.

#7 - What if the courts operated in the open?

Accountability is impossible in the dark.  Opinions should be written so the citizens they affect can understand them - the law belongs to the people, not the legal profession.

Emergency “shadow docket” orders should be reserved for genuine emergencies, and the power of a single district judge to freeze federal policy nationwide should be examined and constrained to end the forum-shopping game both parties have exploited.

The Mountain Ahead

Making these changes will be challenging, but not impossible.

American citizens have never voted for a single federal judge - and never will - although in many states we vote for state and local judges.  We do, however, choose the President who nominates them, and the senators who confirm them.

This is why every vote counts.  Too many of us are not voting - or voting based on emotion rather than facts - and every uncast or miscast vote forfeits power to the powerful.  In 2024, roughly 89 million eligible Americans did not vote - more than voted for either candidate.

Self-governance is not a spectator sport.

The cost is small - a little of our time, attention, and action.  American citizens must now show up as responsible stewards of our freedom and close the door in tyranny’s face.

We can do this. 

This is the last of three posts on the branches of government our Founders designed to serve us, not rule us.  We began with the Executive - the one who enforces the law - then Congress, the many who make the laws, and now the courts, who apply them.

Each was carefully designed to check the others.  Each has drifted from its purpose.  Each can be restored.

Lasting restoration occurs when we - American citizens - strengthen our character, comprehend the facts, and gratefully steward the people’s government for the common good.

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