Book Review: Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court

01/10/2020 59 min
Book Review: Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court

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Episode Synopsis

The brutal confirmation battles we saw over Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are symptoms of a larger problem with our third branch of government, a problem that began long before Kavanaugh, Merrick Garland, Clarence Thomas, or even Robert Bork: the courts' own self-corruption, aiding and abetting the expansion of federal power. In Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court, Ilya Shapiro, director of the Cato Institute's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, takes readers inside the unknown history of fiercely partisan judicial nominations and explores reform proposals that could return the Supreme Court to its proper constitutional role. Confirmation battles over justices will only become more toxic and unhinged as long as the Court continues to ratify the excesses of the other two branches of government and the parties that control them. Only when the Court begins to rebalance our constitutional order, curb administrative overreach, and return power to the states will the bitter partisan war to control the judiciary subside.Featuring: -- Ilya Shapiro, Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, The Cato Institute and Author, Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court-- Joseph Tartakovsky, Author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America's Supreme Law