If Supreme Court justices had to run for reelection, a number of them would be in big trouble. Last week the court issued radical decisions that boldly defied American opinion on both abortion and guns. It overturned Roe v. Wade and about 20 other cases that had protected the right to abortion for a half-century. And in the wake of some of the worst mass shootings in American history, it struck down a New York law dating to 1911 that required people to demonstrate a need before being authorized to carry a gun in public.
But Supreme Court justices have their jobs for life. We can’t send them packing (short of impeachment, which is limited to high crimes and misdemeanors). What, then, can those of us who feel violated by the court’s raw exercise of power do?
In both the abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and the gun case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court is out of step with the nation. Polls consistently show a large majority of Americans favored upholding Roe, and more than three quarters of New Yorkers supported that state’s limits on carrying guns.
