The U.S. Supreme Court's Self-Corruption?

Do our courts have too much power? In this editorial in the L.A. Times, the author, Ilya Shapiro, tries to warn us about the dangers of the U.S. Supreme Court’s self corruption - continuing a cycle that gives the other two branches of our government more power than they need or should have. 

The argument is that because we as a nation politicize everything, we have courts that have “Liberal Judges”, and “Conservative Judges”, and no real Judges.  In considering the Supreme Court, Shapiro claims that, because Democrats will only vote for a liberal Judge, those Justices will then typically hand down judgments along the Democratic Party line, not the Law as it is written. The Supreme Court then gives more power to “their” members of Congress - continuing to nullify Checks and Balances - as long as it gives benefit to “their” party. This turns into a parasitic relationship for the country which then takes power from the people and the states, leaving it all in the hands of the federal government. This is bad for the nation and contradicts the views of the Founding Fathers.

 Shapiro points out that until the early twentieth century, Congress did not make many laws that required Supreme Court interference.  This is for two reasons:  at that point Congress generally acted within the confines of their rights and the Law;  also, the President was willing to use his presidential veto if he believed it was outside the Law.  The current situation is opposite that.  The Supreme Court Justices have been voting more based on political opinion. 

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) recently referred to the continual  5-4 split in the Supreme Court as her reason for voting for Justice Kavanaugh.  This agrees with Shapiro’s argument that our courts vote along party lines.  It also proves his point that Congress doesn’t want to solve the problem, but only to solidify the wins of their party. 

Ilya Shapiro writes for many newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. The fact that he writes for both liberal and conservative news sources indicates that he is not simply a political writer trying to please his base audience.  He is currently a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.