Journal of Economic Perspectives
ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)
Can Structural Changes Fix the Supreme Court?
Journal of Economic Perspectives
(pp. 119–42)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
Proposals for structural changes to the US Supreme Court have attracted attention in recent years amid a perceived 鈥渓egitimacy crisis鈥� afflicting the institution. This article first assesses whether the court is in fact facing a legitimacy crisis and then considers whether prominent reform proposals are likely to address the institutional weaknesses that reformers aim to resolve. The article concludes that key trends purportedly contributing to the crisis at the court are more ambiguous in their empirical foundations and normative implications than reformers often suggest. It also argues that prominent reform proposals鈥攊ncluding term limits, age limits, lottery selection of justices, and explicit partisan balance requirements for court membership鈥攁re unlikely to resolve the institutional flaws that proponents perceive. It ends by suggesting a more modest (though novel) reform, which would allocate two lifetime appointments per presidential term and allow the size of the court to fluctuate within bounds.Citation
Hemel, Daniel. 2021. "Can Structural Changes Fix the Supreme Court?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 35 (1): 119–42. DOI: 10.1257/jep.35.1.119Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- K10 Basic Areas of Law: General (Constitutional Law)
- K40 Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior: General