With all that’s happening in the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court needs to forego their 3 month summer vacation. With the collapse of impartiality and allegations of overreach, things have gotten out of hand even with the high Court – but the seeds were planted many years ago. It is little known that while our founding fathers gave the chief executive the White House, and gave the Congress the Capitol Building, they gave the Supreme Court only a stage coach with which to ride the circuit.
Why was the U.S. Supreme Court not furnished with their own building? In forming a new government, as our forefathers searched history for models, they saw examples of abusive courts consolidating power. Imposing court buildings bespoke prestige and the possession of superior knowledge. Supplicants came to exalted judges. Judicial egos expanded into overreach. No, the founders reasoned, our judges will go to the people. No palace for ‘juridical sovereigns’; just a travel circuit for judicial servants.
In the 1800’s, the justices tired of begging space over the market houses in each city, muddying trousers and coats while pushing the stage coach out of road ruts in the rain, bearing with flies and stench of the produce and animals being sold in the market stalls below. Chief Justice Marshall begged Congress for permanent space, and was given a dank file room sparsely lit with slit windows, situated literally and figuratively, below the People. (Their representatives in the Senate).
As the population, and subsequently the number of U.S. senators increased, the Senate outgrew its space, and Chief Judge Marshall called dibs on the old Senate Chamber. In the late 1920’s, Chief Justice Taft (formerly a U.S president) lobbied Congress to give the justices their own building. Construction was begun in 1933 at the height of the depression (a ‘make work’ project for many men). Fashioned like a Greek temple, in size it dwarfs the White House and rivals the Capitol building. Former Justice Blackmun once indicated he liked to walk through the front entrance (rather than their dedicated entrance) to ascend the marble stairs and experience the grandeur of where he presided. Was he kidding when he said, “We’re nine prima donnas.”? (Time Magazine, February 6, 1984.)
A 3 step process would restore the original vision of our founding fathers for the Supreme Court:
1. By executive order, the president would require the Supreme Court to forego their customary 3 month summer vacation (a luxury they simply gave themselves in the past).
2. Next, the president by executive order puts the court back to riding the circuit (by plane) commencing January 1, 2026. Coincidentally, there are 12 federal judicial circuits in the nation – one for each month of the year.
3. Finally, the president by executive order restores the vision of our founding fathers by razing the current Supreme Court building to prevent a future president restoring the judges to the old Supreme Court Building and releasing them from the obligation of riding the circuit.
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