What happened to checks and balances for the Supreme Court?

Make Me Smart May 4, 2023 Transcript

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Kimberly Adams 

More optimistically. Let’s go for real.

Kai Ryssdal 

Thare you go. Alright. Sorry. That was me hitting the microphone.

Kimberly Adams 

Are you ready to go?

Kai Ryssdal 

I was ready. And then I scooted my chair and then it just all went to oh God. Hey, everybody. I’m Kai Ryssdal. Welcome back to make me smart, where we make the day make sense. You can hear the engineers going, Oh, what are you doing?

Kimberly Adams 

It’s like, Why can’t y’all use microphones? Like professionals? I am Kimberly Adams, it is Thursday, May the fourth. May the Fourth be with you of course. Everyone thank you so much for joining us.

Kai Ryssdal 

All right, we’re gonna do a little news, then we’ll do smile thing and then we will let you all be on your way about your day. Let’s go. What are.. yours are more serious than mine actually. Actually they’re all serious  but yours are more relevant, more topical, more immediate. How about that?

Kimberly Adams 

Sure. I mean, I might have both very Washington focus. So first of all, today, a jury here in Washington, convicted four members of the proud boys of seditious conspiracy. Now that this is, of course, linked to January 6. The proud boys are this far right militia group that, you know, really led some of the most violent acts on January 6. Things were quite organized. And there’s a lot of documentation showing that they clearly had a plan to try to take over the government and, you know, stand in the way of the election. And seditious conspiracy is a very, very serious charge. This dates back to the Civil War, and these verdicts can bring them up to 20 years in prison. They also have, also had been convicted of many, many other felonies: convicted of conspiring to impede Congress from performing its duties, obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder; there’s a mistrial on a couple of counts after jurors couldn’t reach consensus. And and one person, I think, was acquitted because they weren’t quite a leader. But, you know, it’s it’s a good moment to check in on the fact that more than 600 people related to the “Capitol rampage,” as Reuters calls it, have been convicted of crimes related to the attack on the Capitol. And people are doing real time for this. And would… as as they should. Five people died during or shortly after the riot, more than 140 police officers were injured. And these Proud Boys were really some of the more violent folks there. And you know, they’re planning to appeal. They’ve, you know, a lot of them are claiming that they are being scapegoated for Trump since Trump has not been held liable for this yet. But it’s just you know, worth noting that these cases are still ongoing, people are still being convicted, and we’re still learning more about just how bad that day was. Yes. So that’s one.

Kai Ryssdal 

I I toyed briefly.. so first of all, yay, right? I don’t think I’m betraying any impartiality there by saying yay, the people who attacked the Capitol or led attacks on the Capitol have been convicted. I toyed briefly with making this might make me smile, because it kind of put a smile on my face. I don’t know what to tell you. And I realized that violated the whole concept of the make me smile, but vut wow, this is this is I mean, you..

Kimberly Adams 

Justtice served does just feel good. It takes a while. I mean, this, it’s more than two years later. It’s never gonna help the families of the people who died or, you know, some of those officers, you know, aren’t able to work anymore, who were injured and… but, you know, something is being done. So, sure, you know what, why not? You’re allowed to smile about that. Number two, another political story here in Washington, but also a big money story. More and more developments every day about Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, and just all of the money and resources and gifts that he has been getting from this really, really wealthy conservative donor. Today there was reporting out that he also had one of his relatives who I guess was his adopted, you know, basically he treated him like a son. You know, Harlan Crowe paid for this guy’s, this young man’s boarding school to the tune of many, many thousands of dollars. And just as a reminder, this, you know, very wealthy man is also like, owns the house that Clarence Thomas’s mother lives in for, I guess no rent. And I linked in the show out to a Vox story about this, which goes over a lot of the reporting from ProPublica about just the extent of the, you know, ethical awfulness going on here. But it also has some solutions, right? If you scroll to the, towards the bottom of the article, you know, it says there are better ways to design a judiciary. And brings up a couple of different models have different ways that this could be done, because right now, there’s no accountability for this. Congress can’t really do anything, other courts can’t really do anything because the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. They are effectively accountable to no one. And in, in a democracy, there should be no one who is accountable to no one, right? And so they list a couple of other models. So in the British system, I’m just going to read here. “The British system, for example, Supreme Court justices are selected by a commission, consisting of the courts current president, a senior member of the Judiciary, and representatives from local judicial selection Commission’s in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. There, the Lord Chancellor has a single use veto that they can use to reject the first choice. But if they use that power, they can’t block the second choice. Similarly, US states use a system called the Missouri plan,” which of course means I love it more. “And under that process, there’s a..” it took a second but I’ll take it. “A seven person commission, that includes three lawyers, elected by the lawyers of Missouri bar, three citizens selected by the governor, the Chief Justice, who serves as chair. When a vacancy opens on the state Supreme Court, the Commission selects three names and forwards them to whoever the state governor is at the time, who must then choose from one of those three candidates within 60 days, or the commission makes the final decision.” Basically spreading out the decision making for these very important roles, rather than it just being a purely partisan decision by a single administration. And I think like… now, will we end up in a situation where anytime soon, we’re seriously revamping the Supreme Court, it’s very unlikely given the political situation here in Washington. But it is worth noting that there are better ways to do this that at least provide some accountability. So that’s my rant.

Kai Ryssdal 

And it’s a good rant, and I associated myself with everything you have said. The thing I legit don’t understand about this is that it is okay for the Supreme Court to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. But it’s not okay for the Congress to apply any kind of oversight to the court. Now, yes, the Senate does have advice and consent on nominations, and then Congress can control the size of the court, it can control some of the cases, it can control the inferior courts and how many of them that are. But I don’t get to your point about nobody should be unaccountable. I don’t get how there’s no, there’s no congressional oversight on this one. I don’t get it.

Kimberly Adams 

I mean it’s, it’s funny. It’s like the the Founding Fathers got the balances part on this one, right, but not the checks.

Kai Ryssdal 

Right. Right. Right. But not the check.

Kimberly Adams 

Becasue it was supposed to be the checks and balances, but it’s only like the balance part because there’s, you know, balance on the front end of who goes into the court, and the structure of the court, but no check on the court at all.

Kai Ryssdal 

Right and this, right… and this idea that they hold their terms of service during good behavior, right? Which has come to mean lifetime appointments, which means that once they’re in the door, that’s it, see you later. You know?

Kimberly Adams 

Teah, yeah, yeah.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah. Okay. So anyway, mine are sort of brief actually. One of them I just want to point out that not a day after we did the episode on child labor with the reporter from the New York Times on Tuesday… Here we go with McDonald’s, a franchisee being fined for illegally using workers as young as 10. Keeping them working until late in the evening. And are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? “To 10 year olds are among 300 children who worked at McDonald’s restaurants illegally, a Labor Department investigation of franchisees in Kentucky found.” What?! Just what. Just what. So there’s that item. Item number two, so I was having a conversation with with Nancy Farghalli, the executive producer of Marketplace’s morning and we were talking about I don’t even know what we were talking about. And we got to talking about this trip that we took to Washington last week, or maybe it was two weeks ago, I forget, frankly. Did a bunch of interviews, whatever. And we each remarked that masks on airplanes now are basically gone. Like as recently as a month ago, I was wearing a mask on a plane, but this time I didn’t. And she wore masks only a little bit. And by and large masks are gone on planes, which made this item that I heard, and maybe some of you all have heard this too, since you’re probably public radio fans, but but Rob Stein on the interior newscast throughout today has been pointing out these new numbers from the CDC, pointing that COVID is now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, as opposed to the third leading cause of death. And we point out not infrequently on this podcast, that the pandemic, while largely forgotten in people’s minds, is actually not over. And I just want to bring this point up in the CDC report. 500 people a week are dying from COVID. Quarter million people last year, 224,000 people died from COVID. So and this is more of a memo to myself than anything else. While we have decided we’re done with COVID, COVID has not done with us. And that’s, we just need to remember that.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah that’s wild. It’s… I got an email yesterday from someone who I ran into, and I was in St. Louis last week, to let me know that they tested positive for COVID and texted me like “oh, we were hanging out and tested positive for COVID.” And you know, so I notified my mom, and you know, we’re gonna test and all those things, and it’s fine. We didn’t test positive. But that is the first time in a very long time that I have been extended that courtesy, you know, of somebody letting me know that they were sick, who actually knew that they were sick. Like I still when I feel sick, I test for COVID first, you know, just in case. But a lot of people when they feel sick, they’re just not testing anymore. I still wear a mask on planes. I wear masks on public transportation. I wear a mask if I’m taking like a rideshare service. Sometimes I wear it in the grocery store, but not always. Definitely when I go into the pharmacy. It’s full of sick people. And I think that’s that’s probably going to be my MO for the foreseeable future. I don’t imagine dialing back anymore from that.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah and that is smart. Yeah, it’s just people are still dying. That’s

Kimberly Adams 

But I definitley go to restaurants and to crowded places that are probably way more risky than, you know, the metro and don’t wear a mask. So it’s sort of like, what did what did we call it? Sanitation theater?

Kai Ryssdal 

Right. Right. Right.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah. Like security theater. Yeah. All right.

Kai Ryssdal 

All right, Drew. Was it Drew? I don’t know if it was Drew. I think it’s Drew. Yes. All right. It’s Drew.

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, you go first.

Kai Ryssdal 

So this weekend is the Kentucky Derby and and let’s just stipulate here that there are real challenges in horse racing racing right now. There are over medications, there are horses that are dying and that is in and of itself a tragedy. But the Kentucky Derby is happening this weekend. And it is the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s season where he won the Triple Crown with records that have yet to be broken 50 years later, including some ginormous one of the Kentucky Derby. I don’t remember exactly how many lengths. Anyway, in The Athletic today, which you can read if you have a subscription in the New York Times. And which we’ll put on the Show page. I don’t know maybe I can arrange a gift subscription or something. Anyway, there’s… so Secretary that after he won, was retired and put out to stud. And he had 663 foals, or children but foals right? Of which only two are still alive. There’s a story in The Athletic today about the daughter. She’s 34 years old and she is living in retirement in I don’t even know where. It’s a great great great little story about this horse and and what her life is like and the history and it’s just cool. I just really liked it and it gave me a little smile. And that’s it. That’s what I got. Her name is Trusted Company by the way. It’s really cool.

Kimberly Adams 

Aww that’s lovely. And I love that she’s like all Shaggy and stuff because she’s just chill in retirement and out in the field. And just like, yeah. I’m gonna get to see a bunch of thoroughbreds this weekend because I’m going to a steeplechase with some friends.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh, it’s what’s wild to me is… So I’ve been to one actually, out in like Virginia horse country.

Kimberly Adams 

That’s where I’m going.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, super cool. Great to have done once for a whole lot of reasons. But it’s so loud man. Those horses come around the corner and the earth shakes.

Kimberly Adams 

Earth shakes. Absolutely. Yeah. It’s also like terrifying to watch. Like anybody who’s seen National Velver that’s what we’re talking about with the steeplechase. And like those those barriers are huge. Like, and these horses are big, big horses, but you see them going and and it’s like, oh, there’s a brick wall with some bushes and a little pond that you have to just go over like, no big deal. And, you know, it was funny. Drew was posting about all the fun hats that are going to be seen this weekend at the Kentucky Derby and at the coronation. There was somebody who Tweeted “the coronation and the Kentucky Derby are both May 6. What a wonderful day for big stupid hats.” And I am here to say that yes, I will be wearing a big stupid hat on Saturday and loving it.

Kai Ryssdal 

There you go. Perfect. What do you got?

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, I’ve got two. I couldn’t go without, you know, a May the fourth related story. Yes, it Star Wars day. You know, I am who I am and I embrace that part of myself. There is a hilarious story in Polygon, which is sort of like this gaming news outlet. And I’m trying to redeem myself for not knowing what games Activision Blizzard had yesterday. So anyway, Polgon has a story about a new Star Wars game, which is “Star Wars Jedi Survivor,” which apparently finally takes us to a Star Wars bathroom. Because apparently..

Kai Ryssdal 

(cackles) Sorry.

Kimberly Adams 

Because apparently in all the Star Wars franchises you rarely, if ever, see what the inside of a bathroom looks like. So this is a little sample. “Granted, it isn’t the first Star Wars bathroom ever to appear. That honor weirdly might go to the Star Wars Galaxy’s edge theme park where the bathrooms are in character. Andor also kind of showed us Star Wars bathrooms, but they were also basically prison cans: Spartan, functional, and not big on privacy. Similarly, the Razor Crest, Din Djarin’s ship in season 1 of The Mandalorian, had a head for his long-haul trips that’s possible to spot in the background of the first episode.” However, the bathrooms in Jedi Survivor are “the real deal, and probably a (somewhat scummy) representation of how most folks go in the Star Wars universe…” And there are many, many photos of the bathrooms in a sort of skeezy bar in this game, which made me chuckle and smile and it was wonderful. Oops. And now I hit the mic. It’s our day for this.

Kai Ryssdal 

There you go. There you go.

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, my other one. My other one is a little bit more earth based. And it is in Popular Science, a guide to all the cool stuff that you can see in the night sky in May, including meteors flower moons, and sorry, meteor showers. There’s going to be a penumbral lunar eclipse this weekend. There’s going to be an Aquarius meteor shower this weekend. There’s a bunch of cool Moon things happening. And then Mercury at greatest Western elongation on May 29. And so there’s lots of details on how to see all those things. So I thought that was kind of fun too. That’s all I got.

Kai Ryssdal 

I have to look that up, the Western elongation

Kimberly Adams 

I can tell you a little bit about it real quick. It says that this is “the planet Mercury will reach its greatest separation from the sun in late May and into June. May be difficult to see from the United States but it’s expected to read this reached this point in the pre-dawn hours beginning on May 29.” So there we go.

Kai Ryssdal 

Excellent. And now we know. And with that we’re out of here. We’re done. Back tomorrow economics on tap. It’s a Friday YouTube live stream included. Let me say that again. The YouTube live stream will be included so you’re committed now oh, social team. We’ll do the news, we’ll have some drinks. We’ll play half full/half empty as well.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, and if you got a question comment or suggestion for the show. You know what to do. We’re at 508-U-B-SMART or makemesmart@marketplace.org.

Kai Ryssdal 

Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Drew Jostad. Our intern is Antonio Barreras.

Kimberly Adams 

Ellen Rolfes writes our newsletter. Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy  is the executive director of Digital.

Kai Ryssdal 

Excellent.

Kimberly Adams 

I think I should wear my big hat to the live stream

Kai Ryssdal 

Gutsy move.