Should Judges Be Appointed Essay

Under Article II of the Constitution, the President has the power, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint Judges of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life there for, each nomination to the Supreme Court has a long-lasting influence on the Courts decisions. Since the Supreme Court began in 1789 there have been 160 nominations for Supreme Court justices, 124 of which were approved, six of which chose not to serve. (Senate Statistics)The United State constitution has our supreme court justice nominated by the president and approved by the senate, so that the Justice isn’t pressured with facing reelection stress and political support.

The System of appointing Supreme Court judges is well thought though by allowing the legislative branch check the executive branches nomination. The Main idea behind appointing Supreme court Justices is to minimize the amount of factors that could influence a Justices court decision.

The Pressure of getting reelected is something that congress members and the President face all the time.

Whether it be voting of a bill with lots of publicity or the latest war congressmen and the President are always worried about how the situation will make or break their political career. Supreme Court Justice have the luxury of being appointed and can honestly and unbiased make decision on cases. Being appointed also save the justices from the hassle of campaigning like the congressmen and President have to. Campaigns are very costly and time consuming. Congressmen are up for reelection every two years this gives them one year in office until they have to start campaigning. Campaigning distracts congressmen from their duties and gives an advantage to other congressman to alter the outcome on a bill based on who will be able to attend. As shown below in the table the amount of money spent in election campaigns is astronomical.

Another factor that would alter the court justice’s judgment if they were elected is what party they would run under. As shown in the table below all the senators shown voted with their party affiliation at least 95 percent of the time. (Open Congress) As you can tell by the chart above senators fell obligated to vote with there party most of the time. Why is this bad thing? Supreme Court’s decisions aren’t supposed to be based on a political platform. Their decisions are supposed to be an honest representation of what they believe the framers of the constitution would have decided.

For the past 224 years the Supreme Court has existed there has only been one justice impeached. This proves that the system of check and balances of the president nominating candidates and the senate approving these nominees is a successful system.

“Works Cited”
“U.S. Senate: Reference Home Statistics & Lists Supreme Court Nominations, Present-1789.” U.S. Senate: Reference Home Statistics & Lists Supreme Court Nominations, Present-1789. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/nominations/Nominations.htm>. “OpenSecrets PolitiQuizz: The Congressional Money Chase.” – OpenSecrets Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/05/politiquizz-the-congressional-money-chase.html>. “The Money Behind the Elections.” Opensecrets RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/>. “- OpenCongress.” – OpenCongress. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.opencongress.org/people/votes_with_party/senate/democrat>.