Nandi Lewis

POL 166

Professor: Barry Murdaco

Lehman College

                              

                                                      Reflection Paper
                           Revisiting the Constitution:
                We Need Term Limits for Federal Judges
                                By James Greene

“Eighteen years would mean that justice’s tenure would be long enough to ensure independence from political patronage. As important, it would be short enough to ensure that we remain a country of laws and not of men.” (James Greene)

        In this article written by James Greene he expresses the concerns of power in the Supreme Court systems. This particular part in the article states the main concern of which judicial branch of the Constitution needs to be advised more often so that the same person in power of this branch does not feel lead to exercise power according to his beliefs because being there for a long period of time. He expresses how it is patronage in a sense to allow the same person to stabilize laws because he or she is able to affect decisions that need to be made hastily in order to implement the needs of society. The judge would be able to affect legislative and executive inputs on every change; and implement court orders in which to enhance a certain population in the country. Having someone in the Supreme Court seat for an ample amount of time does  allow U.S citizens to feel as if were are receiving the freedom that was promised to us. More importantly it is important that laws benefit the population’s best interest and not of those who are in control of meaningful decisions, decisions that are based upon for example racial stereotypes. In conclusion having certain amount of time for judges to work in Supreme Courts limits the over use of power.

In picking this article I found it interesting to learn that the Constitution allows for judges to sit for years doing this job. If the executive and legislative have to meet certain time requirements why is it that these judges are silently remaining in power for long periods? This book that I am reading for one of my classes called “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, really informed me on things I did not know especially about the Supreme Court. She stated that the Supreme Court were allowing law enforcement to perform tactics by giving them consent to do unreasonable searches and seizures when it came to drugs without no suspicion. They also did not value the fourth amendment towards minorities in particular, and with the police they came up with ways to justify certain actions. I think what Green wrote as a step in making sure judges serve shorter times is a great idea because in any case certain rules would not affect people for long periods of time. Also it gives us in this country a chance to see who is true to serving the country rather than serving themselves. Overall, this article opened my understanding towards politics because it allowed me to see the constitution for what it truly is.