MSNBC: Joe Manchin's support for Supreme Court reform is a sign [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

MSNBC - Joe Manchin's support for Supreme Court reform is a sign

The outgoing West Virginia senator is finally recognizing his years-long miscalculation.

Dec. 11, 2024, 6:00 AM EST
By Ryan Teague Beckwith, Newsletter Editor

The United States has a long tradition of politicians pausing on their way out the door to point out a serious problem the country is facing. From George Washington lamenting the growing power of political parties to Dwight Eisenhower warning about the "military-industrial complex" to, well, pretty much everything Mitt Romney's been going on about since he decided to retire.

The flip side of this truth-telling is that it can feel a little disappointing to the audience. You're telling us this now? Why didn't you do something about it when you were in power?

That's pretty much the reaction to the recent announcement from outgoing West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the most consistently exasperating member of the U.S. Senate in living memory. Over the weekend, the Democratic-turned-independent senator declared his support for a constitutional amendment establishing term limits for Supreme Court justices.

"The current lifetime Supreme Court appointment structure is broken and fuels polarizing confirmation battles and political posturing that has eroded public confidence in the highest court in our land," he wrote on X.

Link to tweet

That's not news to anyone who's paid attention to the Supreme Court in recent years. More than half of Americans have an unfavorable view of the court, a historic low that has come about after years of decline followed by a massive drop in the aftermath of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Supreme Court confirmations have become mostly party-line votes. The current court is the most conservative in nearly a century and will likely remain that way for decades. The 6-3 supermajority also seems to have emboldened the justices' worst impulses, from sketchy dealings with conservative donors to the lack of an enforceable ethics code.

/snip