Summary
Historian Timothy Snyder warns that the U.S. Supreme Court’s reliance on originalism and its detachment from “factuality” risk undermining its legitimacy, especially in a politically charged environment.
Speaking on the Amicus podcast, Snyder argues that the justices’ insular worldview may lead to decisions that disregard public sentiment and the rule of law, potentially provoking backlash against the Court.
He also critiques the Court’s approach to free speech, which he says prioritizes corporate rights over individual freedoms, distorting the First Amendment by equating corporate influence and dark money with free speech, rather than protecting the voices of ordinary citizens.
Legitimacy? ROFL
Without understanding the particulars of US legal matters, it seems to me that it is pretty obvious that the US judiciary is deeply corrupt. Maybe not in a day to day manner, but in a broader “subservient to oligarchs” sense.
In my country, we also have supreme court members getting bribed by oligarchs and judiciary groupings that act to protect their interests while working as a for hire team for the highest bidding oligarchs (similar to the American “Federalist Society”). Sure, in the US the whole process is done with a bigger focus on PR; lot’s of pomp and word salad about “interpretation of the constitution”, but I personally did not find that in any way convincing when I lived in the US. Seemed like a ruse for plausible deniability and keeping the plebs from asking too many uncomfortable questions.
The bigger question, that I was discussing with my American friend, is why the main US opposition party (that claims to oppose of excesses of the far right) does not take a serious approach to corruption in the judiciary. Specifically we were discussing the supreme court succession late in Trump’s 1st term. There is almost a surrealist, comedic quality to the whole thing. It is unlikely a political force can get anywhere with such a myopic approach.
