United States
It’s official: The United States judicial system is no longer independent.
And by destroying its independence the Supreme Court has knocked away one of the main pillars of American democracy and left the constitution’s carefully structured and revered system of checks and balances heavily politicised and largely controlled by the executive.
Of course, the US judicial system was already heavily politicised. But the Supreme Court took its role as the top court seriously enough to avoid political judgements. No longer.
America’s legal system is based on English Common Law. Many of the structures were determined by the great 18th-century British jurist William Blackstone, whose commentaries were required bedside reading for American legal eagles well into the last century.
In 18th century England judges were appointed by the monarch. So, in 18th century independent America all federal judges were appointed by the president subject to the approval of the Senate.
In the 21st century the president appoints 870 federal judges, these include nine Supreme Courts, 179 judges to the Courts of Appeal, 673 District judges and nine to the Court of International Trade. In all but a handful of cases, judges have been chosen to reflect the president’s ideological and political beliefs.
That is the federal level. The system for choosing judges at the state level varies from state to state and is a reaction to the system imposed on the 13 colonies by 18th century Britain. Back then the lawyers and judges were chosen by the monarch and were basically jurists who had failed in the mother country. To avoid a repetition of that problem, most of the states decided to elect their judges and prosecutors (district attorneys).
Only five states (Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Rhode Island) select their judges solely on merit. All the other 45 states either directly elect the judges, select them initially on merit and then, after a single term on the bench, by election. Alternatively they are directly appointed by the governor or the legislature.
All but three of the states (New Jersey, Connecticut and Alaska) and Washington DC, elect their district attorneys. This means that it is common for DA candidates to campaign on manifestos to achieve elected office – such as prosecute Donald Trump.
Back in the mother country the judicial system has evolved as the monarch’s political powers have shrunk. All judicial appointments are now made on merit by committees of legal experts. The Magistrates – the lowest court – are selected by a network of 47 advisory committees of serving magistrates and local non-magistrates. Judges for the Crown Court, High Court and Appeals Court are selected by a Judicial Appointments Commission and the 12 members of the UK Supreme Court are recommended to the Prime Minister by a Special Selection Committee of past and current judges. The Prime Minister always accepts their recommendation.
The British judicial system is thus independent of political control. It is an independent judiciary and the 21st century British system is seen by most democratic countries as the gold standard. It is why people take to the streets in protest in Israel, India, Hungary and Poland when the government attempts to switch from a merit-style judicial system to a politically appointed one. America, however, remains stuck in the 18th century. And now, with the recent Supreme Court ruling it has made a giant step backwards to monarchical rule.
France
It looks as if France’s hard-right National Rally (RN) will be blocked from an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
In the week between first and second round voting, a “Republican Front” was formed to bar RN’s path to power. 217 candidates pulled out of the three-way second round tests in order to clear the path for whomever is best placed to defeat the RN candidate.
Opinion polls three days before Sunday’s vote indicate that RN will win the most seats—between 210 and 240. But it needs 289 to secure an absolute majority and the right to form a government. Before the 217 candidates pulled out, RN was predicted to win 270-plus seats.
The left-wing broad church New Popular Front will be placed second with a projected 170-200 seats while Macron’s supporters are expected to run a poor third with 95 to 125 seats. In fourth place will be centre-right Les Republicains with an anticipated 25 to 45 seats.
The failure of RN to break through will mean a period of political haggling as Macron tries to cobble together a coalition which excludes Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s ultra-left France Unbowed.
In the meantime extreme politics appear to have led to extreme actions in the run-up to the second round. More than 50 candidates and activists have been attacked according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who is deploying 30,000 policemen to protect the sanctity of the final round of voting.
Hungary
Almost lost in the flurry of this week’s elections and Supreme Court decisions has been Hungary’s assumption of the rotating EU presidency on July 1st.
For the next six months far-right populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban will be the face of the European Union. This means he will be representing Europe during the US presidential elections and at a crucial point in the Ukraine War.
The Hungarian Prime Minister wasted no time in attempting to make his mark on Europe’s policy towards Ukraine and Russia. Orban has been a key obstacle in coordinating European aid to Ukraine and this week he travelled first to meet Volodomyr Zelensky in Kyiv and then to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin on what he called a “peace mission.”
His travels a few days before a NATO summit to coordinate additional aid to Ukraine were immediately condemned by newly re-elected Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and a string of EU heads of government. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said: “If you truly seek peace you don’t shake hands with a bloody dictator.”
Orban supports Putin’s peace proposals which are basically that Ukraine hand over the eastern half of the country and forswear NATO membership. Similar proposals have been endorsed by America’s Heritage Foundation which has emerged as the Donald Trump think tank.
There has been a formal link between the Heritage Foundation and Orban’s Danube Institute since 2023. Heritage president Kevin Roberts, has called Orban’s Hungary “not just a model for conservative statecraft but THE model.”
* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain".
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11 Comments
18 years since the ‘get together’ Trump had with an Adult actresss…This looks to many on the outside as a bit opportunistic . Whatever you may think of him funnelling hush money to her , if it wasn’t Trump would it really see the inside of a courtroom…B Clinton – that ‘international statesman’ misdemeanours in the oval office went completely unpunished as serious as they were .
The USA’s polity was designed for a small group of colonies on the east coast. Many slave owning and based on an agrarian economy and wishing to give each an equal say and seeking to avoid the kind of monarchical system from which they wished to break away, the system, like our own may have been fit for the 18th and possibly 19th century but that’s about all.
Just like our polity, which is plastered together and had to wait as late as the end of the 1920s for full suffrage and no longer reflects the plurality of the 21st century it is no longer fit for purpose and is in desperate need of reform. They could start by getting rid of the electoral college, which an increasing number of states support, and start to elect their President by popular vote alone. Secondly they should scrap the crazy idea of each state having two senators, regardless of population size. I could go on.
The French Fifth Republic was designed specifically for General Charles de Gaulle. Macron is no de Gaulle. In fact none of the late General’s successors have been. Better possibly would have been the German model, with conditions in place to avoid the multi party and multi government chaos of the Fourth Republic. In the meantime, France could well be in for another dose of ‘cohabitation’, before Macron steps down.
As for Hungary, I’m afraid it’s typical of most but perhaps not all of the former communist east European countries whose quasi democratic institutions, which many had for the first time in theirs history, have been manipulated by big business and other elitist interests to their own advantage.
Whether it’s Putin or Oban in Europe or Modi, XI or Trump elsewhere, they reach for the nationalist card, as did the autocratic regimes in Europe at the start of WW1 to justify their positions.
That’s what writers such as Tim Marshall describe as geopolitics and which could help to explain why so many countries are turning inwards as happened over here with Brexit.
@ John Marriott,
“It’s typical of most but perhaps not all of the former communist east European countries whose quasi democratic institutions, which many had for the first time in theirs history, have been manipulated by big business and other elitist interests to their own advantage.”
Unlike in the West where this just never ever happens! 🙂
@Peter Martin
Of course it does! That’s why the big private money goes where the power is or, in the case of this country and over the pond where the power might end up. You know who Trump will reward if he gets back. Let’s hope that Starmer is made of sterner stuff.
@Peter Martin
I was going to add that they always say that money talks (even if all mine ever seems to say is “Goodbye”).
To mis quote a saying!?.–The love of money leads to more money. Absolute love of money buys absolute power. Our leaders will really have to be kept an eye on so corruption does destroy ALL sharing in a successful country.
The US president can be impeached by Congress and much use of this power has been made in the last few years.
@Mark Frankel
Yes he/she can; but how much use had it proved to be in recent years when both houses have to agree?
Back to France for a minute. I wonder what the result might have been if they had had only one round of voting decided by FPTP, instead of two rounds giving voters and parties a chance for a period of reflection? Mind you, AV would have given them that.
Populism/natonalism seems to take hold most often as an enginerred response to widending economic hardships/inequality, In Russia, the middle classes have been hollowed out outsode of Moscow and St. Petetsburg. The decline of decent paying manufacturig jobs in the USA and UK has geneated a coe of voters susceptible to the cynical messages of Trump and Farage.
in Hungary, vast anounts of EU econoimic aid end up in the pockets of those close to Orban with only a few token crumbs left for the benefit of the general population. It has the same kind of oligarchic business structure as Russia with former state assets in the hands of a favoured political elite and a polotical narrative based on enemies within (Roma, LGBT community, the left) and without (EU, Western Liberals etc).
Orban has completely undermined the independence of the judiciary, has become an impediment to EU progression (seeing it only as a cash cow) and has joined Turkey in playing off Nato against Russia. He is no Imre Nagy (Hungary”s Prime Minister at the time of the 1956 uprising) and is underminning European soldarity in opposing Russia aggression in Ukraine by advocating a Ukainian capitulation for the sake of some cheaper gas to Hungarian business interests.
The judiciary need to be operationally independent as well as being appointed on merit. This is more a matter of protocol and custom than laws. Laws can be useful however to dissuade politiicans from attempting to influence legal process.