Fix The Supreme Court

The United States Is the Outlier Among established democracies with independent judiciaries and strong rule of law, the United States stands virtually alone in granting supreme court justices lifetime appointments with no mandatory retirement age. Every other comparable democracy has recognized what America refuses to acknowledge: unlimited judicial tenure concentrates too much power in too few hands for too long. ...

How the Roberts Court Dismantled Accountability in One Term In a single Supreme Court term spanning 2022-2024, six unelected justices fundamentally rewrote the balance of power in American government. Three decisions stand out for their devastating impact on democratic accountability and the rule of law: Trump v. United States (July 2024): Presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official acts Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (June 2024): Federal agencies can no longer interpret ambiguous statutes—courts will instead New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (June 2022): Gun regulations must match 18th-century historical traditions, not modern public safety needs ...

The Power Congress Forgot It Had Article III of the Constitution gives Congress an extraordinary power over the Supreme Court—one that could neutralize the Court’s most extreme decisions without adding a single justice, imposing term limits, or amending the Constitution. It’s called jurisdiction stripping, and it works like this: Congress can remove the Supreme Court’s power to hear certain categories of cases, preventing the Court from imposing its will on issues where it has overreached. ...

Two Justices, Millions in Gifts, Zero Consequences In December 2024, after 20 months of investigation, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a devastating 95-page report documenting what it called an “ethical crisis at the Supreme Court.” The findings were damning: Justice Clarence Thomas “accepted lavish gifts from billionaires with business before the court for almost his entire tenure as a justice,” with gifts of a “number, value, and extravagance” that have “no comparison in modern American history.” ...

Six Justices, One Organization, Billionaire Funding Six of the nine current Supreme Court justices are current or former members of the Federalist Society: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. This isn’t coincidence. It’s the culmination of a decades-long, billionaire-funded project to capture the federal judiciary and implement a conservative legal agenda that couldn’t win at the ballot box. ...

Taking the Politics Out of Court Appointments Imagine if Supreme Court appointments didn’t dominate presidential elections. Imagine if no single retirement or death could shift the ideological balance of the Court for a generation. Imagine if Americans couldn’t predict how every major case would be decided based on which president appointed which justice. That’s the promise of rotating judicial panels—one of the most innovative and potentially transformative Supreme Court reform proposals. ...

The Only Court in America Without Enforceable Ethics Rules Here’s a fact that should shock every American: The Supreme Court’s nine justices are the only federal judicial officers who are not subject to a specific and binding code of ethics. Every other federal judge in America—from district courts to circuit courts of appeals—faces enforceable ethical rules and potential discipline for violations. All fifty state supreme courts subject their justices to ethics reviews with real consequences. ...

The Winning Streak Breaks On December 20, 2025, the Supreme Court delivered something extraordinary: a loss for the Trump administration. The Court rejected the administration’s emergency request to block a lawsuit challenging its “gag rule” on immigration judges—a policy that categorically forbids judges from speaking publicly about immigration or the agency that employs them, even in their personal capacity. ...

“A Rejection of the Common Sense of the American People” On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most destructive decisions in American history. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, five conservative justices struck down restrictions on corporate political spending, opened the floodgates to unlimited money in politics, and fundamentally corrupted American democracy. The numbers tell the story: Outside spending exploded 28-fold, from $144 million in 2008 to over $4.2 billion in 2024. Dark money groups have poured more than $4.3 billion into elections from undisclosed sources. Just 100 billionaires spent $2.6 billion in the 2024 election—nearly 20% of all spending. ...

Two Dead, Nine Wounded—And Counting On December 13, 2025, a gunman opened fire at Brown University during a final exam review session, killing two students and wounding nine others. The shooter used a 9mm handgun to massacre students studying for an introductory economics exam. This was the 43rd shooting on a college or university campus in 2025 that resulted in a casualty. ...

A Million-Dollar Fast Track to Bypass Congress President Trump launched his “Gold Card” visa program this week, offering foreign nationals expedited permanent residency for a $1 million “gift” to the Department of Commerce—or $2 million if sponsored by a corporation. The program raises a fundamental constitutional question: Can a president simply bypass Congress to rewrite immigration law if you have enough money to pay? ...

The United States Is Alone When defenders of the Supreme Court’s current structure argue that reform would be “radical” or “unprecedented,” they’re counting on Americans not knowing how other democracies structure their highest courts. The truth? The United States is a global outlier—and not in a good way. Among major democracies, the United States is alone in providing life tenure for members of its highest court. Alone in having no mandatory retirement age. Alone in having no enforceable ethics code with real consequences. ...

“With Fear for Our Democracy, I Dissent” On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most dangerous decisions in American history. In Trump v. United States, the Court’s conservative supermajority ruled that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their “official acts”—essentially placing them above the law. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, reading her dissent from the bench in a rare show of protest, delivered a chilling warning: “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.” ...

Forty Years of Regulatory Protection, Gone Overnight On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court delivered one of its most consequential—and least understood—rulings in decades. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Court’s conservative supermajority overturned the Chevron doctrine, a 40-year-old principle that governed how courts review federal regulations. The case involved fishing companies challenging a rule requiring them to pay for federal observers on their boats. But the stakes were infinitely larger than fishing regulations. ...

A Justice Who Believes He’s Above Accountability Justice Samuel Alito presents himself as a principled originalist who respects precedent and follows the highest ethical standards. The reality is starkly different. Alito accepted luxury trips worth over $100,000 from a billionaire who later had cases before the Court—and didn’t disclose them. He flew insurrection flags at his homes and refused to recuse from January 6 cases. He told a Senator during confirmation hearings that precedent was “settled,” then systematically dismantled 50 years of abortion rights. He secretly recorded telling an activist that America must “return to a place of godliness.” ...

A Supreme Court Justice for Sale For over 20 years, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted luxury gifts from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow valued at more than $4.75 million. Private jet trips across the globe. Lavish yacht vacations. A quarter-million-dollar RV he never fully paid for. Private school tuition for a family member. Real estate deals. And he disclosed almost none of it. ...

The Framing Problem Supreme Court reform faces a messaging crisis. Despite majority public support for term limits and other reforms, politicians treat it as politically toxic. Candidates fear being branded as extremists. Democratic leaders stay silent while the Court dismantles decades of progress. This isn’t a policy problem—it’s a framing problem. Court reform has been successfully painted as “court packing,” a radical attack on an independent judiciary. Until we reframe reform as what it actually is—defending democracy from a captured institution—it will remain politically unthinkable. ...

The Uncomfortable Truth There’s a reality that many in the political establishment find difficult to accept: without Supreme Court reform, virtually no progressive agenda is possible. Not healthcare expansion. Not voting rights protection. Not environmental legislation. Not labor reforms. Not reproductive freedom. Nothing. This isn’t hyperbole. It’s a simple recognition of how power actually works in American government. As long as six Republican-appointed justices hold veto power over the entire government, meaningful reform is dead on arrival. ...

Introduction: The Court Behind the Curtain When most people picture the Supreme Court, they imagine a scene of profound formality: nine justices in black robes, listening intently to oral arguments in a marble chamber, later handing down lengthy, reasoned opinions that will be studied for generations. This is the public face of American justice, a symbol of deliberation and transparency. Yet, this image represents only a tiny fraction of the Court’s work. According to University of Chicago Professor Will Baude, over 99% of the Court’s rulings are issued without any of these formalities on what he termed the “shadow docket.” For most of its history, this docket handled routine, uncontroversial matters. Today, it has become the center of intense national debate. ...

Justice Brett Kavanaugh assured Americans that immigration enforcement stops targeting individuals based on their appearance would be brief and harmless—citizens would “promptly” be released after proving their status. A new ProPublica investigation reveals the disturbing reality: more than 170 American citizens have been detained, dragged, beaten, and held for days without access to lawyers or even phone calls during the first nine months of President Trump’s second administration. ...