Packing the Court

JB over at Balkinization has posted one of the four recommendations for judicial reform being sent to Congress.

The lone one JB supports concerns appointments to the Supreme Court. Get a load of this:

• A new appointment is made to the Supreme Court every two years.
• All justices currently on the court remain
• Court cases are heard by the nine junior justices on the court.
• Justices who are senior to nine or more justices are considered Senior Justices
• Senior justices will fill vacancies on the court when junior justices recuse themselves or are otherwise unavailable
• Senior justices called to fill vacancies will be called in order of reverse seniority.

As in, the Supreme Court would have a bench behind the *ahem* bench.
The more junior justices there are beneath you, the less chance you will have to decide a case.

Senior Justices would still be allowed to rule on petitions for certiorari and court rules, but couldn't write opinions unless they were filling a vacancy.

Interesting.

Some flavor of this would certainly make the Court more responsive to the current political climate - but I have think that more turnover means more frequent political struggles. True - each president could count on an equal number of appointments - so I guess that's a plus. This whole "appoint the young & healthy" trend would become moot.

Dunno. I guess if the appointments became a known quantity the court's composition would stop being as subject to acts of God (death, disease, etc).