A MAGA court in New Orleans is shaping the Supreme Court’s agenda
IN THE 1990s Joseph Overton came up with a metaphor for the spectrum of tolerable political views. Taking positions not found within the “Overton window”, he warned, puts you outside the bounds of acceptable opinion. But the centre does not hold: an idea seen as beyond the pale today might appear within the frame tomorrow. And as the zone shifts, positions that were once on the fringes of acceptability become more palatable.
Overton applied his aperture to politicians, not to courts. But 20 years after the libertarian think-tanker’s death in a plane crash, the Overton window is an apt way to understand the most enduring (and evolving) impact of Donald Trump’s presidency: the federal judiciary’s sharp right turn.
The 6-3 conservative majority on America’s highest court, forged by the three justices Mr Trump appointed between 2017 and 2020, is only part of the story. The 45th president seated 27% of all active judges on federal district courts—the 94 trial courts that dot America. He also replaced 30% of judges on America’s 13 circuit courts of appeal. Unlike the Supreme Court, which picks its cases (and in recent years has heard just 60 or so per term), circuit courts are obliged to review, with few exceptions, district-court decisions that the losing party seeks to appeal. These cases number in the tens of thousands annually.
2023-11-30 10:24:54
Link from www.economist.com
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