Get Rid of the Supreme Court? No Thanks, Says Ira Stoll
"If we want to save some money, let's just get rid of the court," was the reaction of Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, to Friday's majority opinion locating a right to gay marriage within the text of the Constitution's 14th Amendment.
Jindal's comments signify a disgust widely felt on the right at the moment with a Supreme Court that failed either to strike down ObamaCare or to preserve the traditional definition of marriage. If the frustration feels familiar, it should'"it tracks with the contempt the left felt for the high court after the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000 resolving the disputed presidential election, and after the 2010 Citizens United decision that struck down some of the campaign speech restrictions of the 2002 McCain-Feingold law known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.
What's more, writes Ira Stoll, there's a strong case to be made that we're freer with the Court than without it. Consider three cases from this term where the court stepped in to protect property rights.