General Discussion

as some people have claimed. Yes, you sometimes get stuck with duds (e.g., Alito, Thomas), but if the president can't fire the justices or influence supporters to vote them out, they don't have to concern themselves with the consequences of pissing him off. They just make decisions based on the law (or what they perceive the law to be even if we don't agree with them), without worrying whether the president who appointed them will have a hissy fit and sack them because he doesn't like a decision. If SCOTUS judges were fireable the tariff decision would have had most of them out on their ear. Since preemptive ranting didn't work for that decision, Piggy showed up at the oral argument in the birthright case and glowered, maybe hoping the lifetime-appointed judges would be intimidated (by what? Ugliness and attitude?) into accepting Sauer's pathetic arguments. When it looked like they weren't buying it he stomped out in a snit. I don't think the founding fathers anticipated a disaster like Trump, but at least they understood that protecting the federal judiciary from the political whims of the other branches or the electorate might be a pretty good idea. QED.