News » Proposals In 16 States To Give Courts’ Power To Legislatures

Proposals In 16 States To Give Courts’ Power To Legislatures

August 20, 2018

Themis in the Legal Stacks 3161
West Virginia’s attempt to impeach the state’s entire Supreme Court is just the latest example of a trend, driven by Republican legislative majorities, to take power away from the courts and put it in the hands of legislatures. Legislators in 16 states are considering at least 51 bills that would diminish the role or independence of the judicial branch. Many bills give the legislature or governor more power over judicial selection, often for partisan advantage; others give the legislature the power to override court decisions and decide the constitutionality of laws (that the legislators wrote); others exert political or other pressures on courts to change the outcome of future cases. Right leaning pressure groups like the NRA are behind many of the bills. In Iowa, a Supreme Court directive that the judicial branch would continue to enforce a courthouse weapons ban despite a new Iowa law allowing guns in courthouses drew a number of legislative responses. One would reduce Supreme Court Justice’s salaries to $25,000, an approximately 85 percent pay cut. The sponsor of the judicial salary bill said, “If the Supreme Court wants to act like legislators they need to start getting paid like legislators.”

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