The Advice and Consent Process
The “advice and consent” hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee to determine the suitability of Judge Clarence Thomas to sit on the Supreme Court should remind us that our highest court is structured primarily by acts of Congress, rather than by the Constitution.
Restrained by the Congress early in our history, from December, 1801, to February, 1803, the Supreme Court did not convene at all! The same could happen to the present court, if the public urges on Congress.
Our first high court held but six judges. The Constitution would not be violated if, awaiting a new President in 1993, the Senate refused to confirm any Bush appointee. Presidents hold the sole power of nomination, but Congress fixes the number of judges. Congress could, effective at Thurgood Marshall’s retirement, reduce the court’s complement to eight, to be further diminished each time a justice leaves the court--until a new Administration. Such reduction was enacted by Congress in 1866, and stood until 1869--when the reprehensible Andrew Johnson left the White House.
By curious coincidence, 1869, when Congress last changed the number of seats on the high court, was also the year the Pope banned abortion.
To forestall future court/constitutional crises like the present one, might it not be well to limit to two the number of justices any President may place on the high court?
JUDITH SEGARD HUNT, San Francisco
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