U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) here says he will introduce a constitutional amendment to provide that the voters of the nation could vote to retain or reject U.S. Supreme Court Justices every eight years.
This is a revolutionary idea. The United States has never held a national election. All elections in U.S. history have always been statewide, or lesser geographical units, never national. In presidential elections, each state’s voters choose presidential electors for that state; there is no single election for President in a technical sense. The United States has never had a national referendum or a national advisory vote.
In order to hold a retention election for U.S. Supreme Court justices, one presumes there would need to be a national election law determining voter qualifications. Currently voter qualifications are determined by each state, even for federal office. That is why ex-felons can’t vote in some states but they can vote in other states. That is why 17-year-olds can vote in federal primaries in some states but not other states. It will be interesting to see if Senator Cruz’s constitutional amendment proposes a uniform rule on who is eligible to vote. It would also be interesting to see what the campaign finance rules would be for members of the Court, if they had to run in retention elections. Recently the Court upheld a Florida rule barring state court judges, or candidates for a state judicial office, from asking for campaign contributions.
It is likely that all members of the U.S. Supreme Court would look on this proposed amendment with disdain. And it is not difficult to imagine that many voters who views are utterly different from Senator Cruz would still support his amendment. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.