Supreme Court independence and neutrality

Question 1

Describe how security of tenure can help provide independence from political influence

Answer 1

• Enumerated in Article III of the Constitution is the protection of the salaries of the justices, and that they are appointed to the role for life.
• This contributes towards judicial independence by alleviating justices of the fear of reprisal from either the executive or legislative branch after they have made a decision which may have gone against either one of them
• if the government could control justices’ salaries, this could be used as leverage against them, forcing them to rule in a certain way.
• as a result, these securities of tenure and pay enable justices to make the decisions they feel is constitutionally right without being removed from their position or have their pay changed.

Question 2

How does the structure of the Supreme Court contribute towards judicial independence?

Answer 2

• the composition of the Court has never changed, meaning there have always been 9 justices
• this prevents the executive branch from adding justices to the court, which could sway the balance of the court in the party’s favour, considering the President would always nominate someone with a similar political leaning.

Question 3

How does the separation of powers contribute towards judicial independence?

Answer 3

• separation of powers enumerated in the Constitution establishes constitutional independence from the other branches of government
• members of the executive and legislative branches cannot be part of the judiciary, meaning that justices will not be politically influenced

Question 4

How might the Supreme Court not guarantee judicial independence

Answer 4

• Appointments process
• the President gets to nominate a judge, which is then voted on by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then a full vote by the Senate. Therefore, there a politicians at each stage of the appointments process.
• this suggests that the process creates a lack of judicial independence because independence implies that the justices have been selected on an impartial basis, where collusion cannot occur between the judiciary and the other branches.