Washington Post
THE SUPREME COURT
IS JEOPARDIZING OUR DEMOCRACY
The Supreme
Court’s legitimacy
Many people believe that the
Supreme Court of the United
States is one of the most
important and powerful
institution in the country.
However, when it comes to
democracy, the Court may not
be as democratic as we think.
Created by the Constitutional
Convention of 1787, the
Supreme Court is linked with
the White House and the
Congress, they depend on
each other. This system is
called Check and Balances.
There are nine Justices,
including a Chief Justice. Each
year, the Supreme Court hears
roughly 100 cases out of 7, 000.
The role of the Justices is to
decide if something is
unconstitutional or not. But are
Issue 18 March 2024
.
they really legitimate to do that
? I am convinced that they are
not. Indeed, we are fortunate
today to live in a democracy.
Howerver, the Supreme Court
of the United States does not
subscribe to this democratic
system. Actually, the President
choses the new Justice when
another Justice dies or is
impeached. That is to say that
Justices are not elected by
people. Furthermore, Court
decisions can have far reaching
consequences.
Apolline Biajoux
A Court not directly
accountable to people
President and Senate may
chose Justices based on their
political opinion. We can take
the exemple of president
Trump, who have appointed
three conservative Justices
that have been in favor of
expanding gun right. Due to
this system, Court is not
directly accountable to people.
Accordingly Justices don’t have
to worry about public opinion
9
or voted out because term of
life.

The Supreme Court, a

threat to women’s rights ?
The Supreme Court declared
the right to abort
unconstitutional. The States
are now free to decide if they
allow abortion or not. 22 States
have already banned abortion
such as Texas or a lot of
Southern States. As a result of
this decision, South Dakota has
introduced an horrible law that
doesn’t respect women’s right.
In South Dakota, there is no
exception for abortion, even if
you were raped or a victim of
incest. How can the decision of
nine people change the lives of
millions of women in distress ? I
don’t think we can talk about
democracy when 65% of
women are against this
decision.

The principle of democracy Conclusion

Some people may argue
against me that Justices
chosen by elected official,
who are elected by people.
To begin whith, I would say
that people aren’t
accountable for the decision
of the elected official. By the
way, sometimes president
don’t agree with the
decision of the Court, like
president Biden with the
overturn of the Roe v. Wade.
He declared that it was a
tragic error. So we are not
talking about democracy but
about abuse of power and
independance.
To sum up, I am convinced
that the Supreme Court is
jeopardizing our democracy
because of their
independance, the far reaching
consequences of their
decisions, the fact that the
Justices are not directly
elected by the people and they
don’t have to worry about
public opinion. Moreover,
President and Senate may
chose Justices based on their
political opinion thus people no
say in the matter.This is the
opposite of the principle of
democracy.