The politicisation of the UK and US judiciaries is a concerning development
It is up to we the people to be in control of our political process, to make sure that our representatives are the ones effecting change and not the judges sitting on the bench.
Out of all the branches of government, the judicial branch is surely meant to be the one most far removed from the political process of party politicking. The UK and US Supreme Courts are vastly different in their structure and purpose, yet both are the highest court of appeal and thus their rulings are binding on other courts. Both also serve a constitutional role but the UK constitution is merely whatever the supreme Parliament passes, whereas the US Supreme Court judges laws against the written document by the framers in 1787.
The UK Supreme Court, a more modern inception, had managed to stay out of politics. That is until the infamous Brexit saga. The court ruled against the government’s prorogation of Parliament, and previously ruled that an any deal with the European Union must be ratified legislatively and not through executive sign-off.
Now we see the Government considering a review of the powers of the court to prevent such political wrangling in future; a necessary executive intervention in a system that did not evolve with any such court in mind. However, this development is also worrying in many respects. No one can act outside the law, and eventually the public will want to know who can guarantee their rights in a representative democracy where our sway over our politicians is limited at best.
Regardless, the more worrying politicisation of a nation’s judicial branch can be viewed across the pond. The US Supreme Court has become overmighty in its power, taking cases that the framers never intended for them to take, and thus becoming another tool of political power in a system where the process of passing legislation is deliberately difficult. Judges, from both sides, are now policymakers from the bench.
The true philosophies of the late great Antonin Scalia ring true: the greatest guarantee of rights is the structure of government not the Bill of Rights. If the powers of the US Government cannot remain separate, if one branch intervenes in another, then the whole house of cards could come tumbling down. With a President wishing to pack the courts with more judges to sway decisions in ways the Democrat Party would approve of, the system is in grave peril even if that peril comes slowly and by attrition.
It is up to we the people to be in control of our political process, to make sure that our representatives are the ones effecting change and not the judges sitting on the bench.
