Constitutional Reforms In A More Perfect Constitution By Larry Sabato

Superior Essays
Larry Sabato, an American political scientist who graduated from the University of Oxford, recommends a new constitutional convention to revise the current United States constitution to change all three branches of government.The proposals Sabato is offering do not do any good, as this paper proves later. Constitutional amendments can be great in cases like the 14th or 21st, but these proposals would not do anything like that . Sabato’s opinion on how to revise the judicial branch by increasing the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to twelve and adding a Balanced Budget amendment to prevent any deficit spending are good ideas in theory, but in reality, neither would work. The Supreme Court has always been held in high regard due to the proficiency of its small and elite staff. In A More Perfect Constitution by Larry Sabato, Sabato proposes increasing the size of the Supreme Court from nine justices to twelve justices. While Sabato’s theory is a good idea in paper, it lacks the potential to become a reality due to the history and ability of the United States Judicial system. With the nine members that the court currently has, each member holds a critical importance to the functioning of the Supreme Court. According to Sabato, an uneven number of justices creates a “swing justice” who wields an even larger amount of power than the other justices. This swing justice controls the outcome of cases and acts as the decision-maker of the court. Sabato also mentions that the court tends to be less diverse due to the President’s need to have someone of the same ideology and belief set sitting on the bench. With the creation of an amendment permanently increasing the size of the Supreme Court from nine to twelve, the amount of power and importance allocated to each judge will lessen, creating a more efficient court in the absence of a judge. The even number of judges would also make the possibility of a swing justice very unlikely. There would be more ties in decisions, diminishing the number of new national precedents set as the appellate decisions are upheld. While Sabato is correct in that making an even number of justices would decrease the likelihood of a swing justice, this idea serves to diminish the power of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court serves as the utmost authority and if a case is accepted there, the case would be questioning constitutional rights. This prevents a sectional divide per area thusly keep the nation unified under the principles of the constitution. A larger court also allows for more diversity and representation to different racial, social, and ethnic groups in America. As of December 1, 2015, there are nine supreme court judges. Racially, there are seven Caucasian justices, including the Chief Justice, one African American justice, and one Hispanic justice (see Appendix A). There are currently 263 justices in the eleven appellate courts and United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, including Chief Justices, Associate Justices, and Senior Justices. Out of these 263 judges, 228 justices are Caucasian, twenty-four are African American, six are Hispanic, and five are Asian. In the Supreme Court, there are six male judges, including the Chief Justice, and three female judges. In the appellate and Federal Circuit courts, there were …show more content…
In A More Perfect Constitution by Larry Sabato, Sabato proposes adding an amendment that would require federal expenditures in any given fiscal year to not exceed federal revenues in that same year; unless three-fifths of both houses of the Legislative branch waived the balanced budget requirement. The only other exception would be during a recession or war, declared or undeclared, a simple majority in both the Senate and the House could circumvent the balanced budget requirement. The amendment would require any surplus, any money that is left over after the federal revenue exceeds the federal expenditures, to be spent on repaying the federal debt. Simultaneously, the amendment would prevent any deficit spending, which is defined as any spending where the expenditures exceed the total revenues generated during the current fiscal year. Theoretically, the creation of a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) would prevent the continual growth of the federal debt. In reality, the BBA would not

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