The Four Horsemen

We find ourselves currently at an interesting situation in American governance vis-a-vis the Supreme Court. For the past four or five years, we've had a group of four ultra-conservative justices who vote as a block on essentially every case, and who seem rather clearly to be using the Court's power to advance their political agenda. And just recently, they may even have overreached, what with having made a decision that 80% of Americans disagree with, i.e. Citizens United. The Court's institutional reputation is at a low point.

This has happened before. During the early part of the Roosevelt Administration, a group of four ultra-conservative justices voted as a block in essentially every case and seemed to use the Court's power to advance their political agenda. And they overreached, striking down much of the First New Deal. And in exchange for their politicizing of the Court, they were greeted with a Court-packing scheme from President Roosevelt. It didn't pass, but that's largely because, intentionally or otherwise, the swing Justice who had been providing the Four Horsemen with their deciding vote ended up shifting more to the left. But there's a precedent for the Court to become so brazenly political that it loses a lot of institutional gravitas, and just might be vulnerable to some sort of political challenge. Let the new Four Horsemen beware.

Oh, and just as a good contrast, in 1803 Chief Justice John Marshall (the most underrated hero of American history) used Marbury v. Madison to brilliantly protect a vulnerable Court from Jefferson's potential attack on it, by issuing a ruling that simultaneously aggrandized the judicial branch and did not instruct Jefferson to do anything he could then ostentatiously decline to do.