Pressuring Judges

Many years ago on road trips with my parents, I would see billboards along the highway reading “Save our Republic. Impeach Earl Warren.” They were put up by members of the John Birch Society who disliked some of the Warren court’s legal opinions and saw him as in league with or at least enabling communists in the United States. There was never any chance that Warren would be impeached, and it seems likely that many of the Birchers knew it. Probably the idea was to stir up hostility to the court and pressure it to take a different direction in its rulings.

This week Joe Biden announced proposals for term limits for justices on the supreme court. Since this would require a constitutional amendment, there is no chance that it will happen, and it is likely that even Biden knows it. Probably the idea is to stir up hostility to the court and pressure it to take a different direction in its rulings.

Making political threats against judges whose opinions one dislikes is a bad idea. There are good reasons the constitution established a judiciary independent of and equal to the legislative and executive branches of government. The Birchers were a bunch of cranks that few people took seriously. Biden is the president of the United States with many members of his party supporting his scheme. It is almost enough to make a person take the cynical view that Democrats and their public relations people in the traditional media might not be sincere in their bleating about saving democracy and preserving guardrails and restoring norms of political conduct, but only pretending for political advantage.

 

Ford

 

According to the news Ford is making billions each year on its gasoline powered pickups and SUVs and losing billions each year on its electric vehicles. So this week the CEO of Ford was reported as proposing a solution to his problem. Americans need to stop wanting the gas powered pickups and SUVs and make the sacrifice of switching to electric vehicles, and not just any electric vehicles but small, cheap ones so that Ford can compete internationally with the cheap electric vehicles coming out of China. One might think a better solution would be for Ford to try to produce vehicles its customers in each market want, whether large gas burning pickups and SUVs here or something else in other places.

It is well known that people advocating free economies, free markets, and free choice often cannot count on corporate weasels for help or even agreement, but a person would think the head of Ford might favor things that make money for Ford. He and others in the industry are under pressure and orders from the government to make and push electric vehicles and “transition” away from making the things customers want, but it is still a free country. He does not have to crawl on his belly and mouth the party line. He could speak out against it and for his customers and employees. It might even do some good.

I plan to take him at his word. If he does not want me to like or want a gas powered Ford pickup or SUV, I won’t. I will take my business elsewhere. There are plenty of other choices. It would serve him right if his loyal customers did the same.