By Chris Finnie
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The United States government was designed with three co-equal branches of government. In the order listed in the Constitution, they are: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. They are set up to form what’s commonly called a system of checks and balances. In other words, the various branches balance the others and provide checks against overreach by any branch.At least that’s the way it’s sup-posed to work. It hasn’t been until now. The November elections changed it somewhat as Democrats assume the majority in the House of Representatives. The switch was marked in California. When the next Congress convenes, Republicans will probably only hold seven of California’s 53 seats in the House, down from 14 before the election. That is the smallest share of the state’s delegation Republicans have controlled since 1883, according to figures provided by the California Target Book, a nonpartisan publication that analyzes state elections.However, Republicans retain the Senate, which makes a big difference in the third branch of our federal government. The Constitution says, “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” It is the job of these courts to decide the constitutionality of laws passed and signed by the other two branches of government. This is done by challenging the laws with cases brought before the courts.We count on judges to judge these cases based on their merits, not on politics. That may be changing too. Because a hyper-conservative organization called the Federalist Society has been playing a long game on the courts, abetted by Republicans in Congress.For years, Senate Republicans refused to consider judicial nominees proposed by president Obama. The most well-known was the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland, but there were many others who were blocked for lower-level court appointments. As a result, there were 107 more vacancies on federal benches at the end of the Obama administration than when Bush left office.But the Federalist Society had a plan, and a list of young, conservative lawyers. By December 1, 2018, the Senate had confirmed 29 Appeals Court judges, 53 District Court judges, and two Supreme Court justices. Almost all were pulled from the Federalist Society list. With this, the third branch of government will be firmly in Republican control for a generation. Despite what Supreme Court chief justice Roberts says to the contrary, these Federalist Society judges are already making more conservative rulings. Combined with outgoing state legislatures in several states that are hastily passing new laws to limit the authority of incoming Democrats, politics has severely weakened our traditional system of checks and balances. The one bright spot in all of this is that three more states have fol-lowed California’s lead in eliminating political gerrymandering. That trend will help limit the current outside influence of partisan politics in our governance
