Whether individuals, organizations or otherwise, is there anything powerful anymore that isn’t politically motivated?  What about the United States Supreme Court?  My thoughts are that it is obviously the most powerful court in our land, is in place to assure – without bias of any kind – that our laws are fairly interpreted, there is equal justice for all, and that the spirit and intent of these laws are not abused.

There was a time, before I became an avid student of politics, when I felt confident that no matter how other courts throughout our country might conduct themselves, the Supreme Court would eschew political pressure, all other outside pressures, and always focus only on the law.  After all, it is the ‘Supreme Court’, I thought, and its justices are extra special.  They are chosen because they are the crème de la crème.

Perhaps I was naive.  I would still like to think that way but much of the naiveté has since been ‘ruled’ out of me: especially with rulings like Citizens United and the one that recently gutted the Voting Rights Act.  The new Republican majority that was elected in 2014 is talking about rolling back everything without a conservative label attached to it so we still have to wait to see what will come of that.

Even some of the Supreme Court Justices do not attend the State of the Union speeches because they feel that they are either just a ‘childish spectacle’ or [they] “have become so partisan and it’s very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there, or, [they] have become a “political pep rally.”  Absent from the State of the Union speech this year were Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

It is not just Republican politics that seem to have tainted the Supreme Court; Democrats have their hands in the cookie jar as well.  I don’t want to feel and sound cynical.  I still want to believe that the U.S. Supreme Court will put its integrity first and focus on the ‘law’ and not politics but my head is in a real struggle with my heart to maintain some semblance of what I sincerely hope was not simply naiveté on my part.

I think that we need to find some way to take politics out of the Supreme Court.  But if the challenge is on par with big money and elections in our country it is going to be a real tough job.  What do you think?

Eulus Dennis