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Justice Elena Kagan accuses Supreme Court’s conservative majority of undermining democracy (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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The liberal justice took aim at various recent rulings, including one that paved the way for rampant partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts.

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s conservative majority Tuesday, saying it undermined democracy in a series of rulings, including several that have prompted a new wave of legislative map-drawing that has increasingly eliminated competitive districts.

Kagan, who has dissented in those cases, also took aim at the majority for striking down campaign finance restrictions and, as she put it, the “evisceration” of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act that was enacted to protect minority voters.

“Part of the reason why the court got it wrong was a kind of lack of the appropriate concern or understanding of the consequences of their decisions,” she said in remarks at Catholic University’s law school in Washington, D.C.

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[–] 6 points 9 hours ago

The other weakness of the US presidential system is that when the executive and legislature are diametrically opposed (the system wasn't envisioned with parties in mind), they both still have to be able to get stuff done, so the power of the executive is expanded way beyond what's acceptable in e.g. the Westminster (parliamentary) system, and the legislature, which is technically the supreme branch (representing the will of the people directly) has to take drastic measures to overturn executive decisions.

In the Westminster system, the executive necessarily maintains the confidence of the parliament, so it can always get stuff passed through parliament while the opposition in parliament also acts as a formal mechanism to critique it. If party discipline is enforced, though, the parliament can't actually do all that much to control the executive and ends up acting as a rubber stamp (with the opposition possibly loud but impotent).

It also really depends on the local culture: if "backbench" (to use the UK terminology) government MPs aren't afraid to stand up for their values, criticize their party in government and shoot down various laws, parliament really does act independently. On the other hand, if MPs are loyal to their party above all else, there are effectively only two branches of government: the legislature-executive and the judiciary, which necessitates either a powerful (activist) judiciary or a very limiting constitution to maintain balance.

What system does your country use?

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