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August 16, 2005
At Least Congress is Elected
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Edward Lazarus, a lawyer in private practice, is author of "Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall and Future of the Modern Supreme Court." |
To ask this question is to presuppose that we live in an era of transcendent Congressional power. Last time I looked Congress wasn't really up to too much except the usual orgy of pork-barrel politics. In the last decade or so, it is the Executive Branch and the Supreme Court that have expanded their authority and that pose a greater immediate threat to our freedoms than Congress.
It is certainly true that Congress is capable of lots of ill-advised legislation, but generally speaking I still prefer the mistakes of elected legislatures to the mistakes of unelected, life-tenured Supreme Court justices, who have shown themselves to be plenty fallible.
There is one way in which the Court could significantly improve Congressional performance — step in (as it failed to do a year ago) and put an end to the political gerrymandering of congressional districts that insulates all but a handful of incumbents from serious electoral challenge. If congresspersons really had to compete for their jobs every two years, we all would be a lot better served.
To be sure, further augmenting "states' rights" at the expense of Congress is ill-advised. While there is still utility to the concept of the states acting as "50 laboratories" for good policy ideas, state and local governments are (among other flaws) more easily dominated by special interests -- as the homeowners in New London found out the hard way. So while I count myself a member of the party out of power in Washington, I'm not counting on state governments to come to my political rescue. I'd rather just have an improved electoral system and let the chips fall where they may.
Posted at August 16, 2005 12:13 PM