Well, here we are again with the talking heads all a twitter over the Supreme Court Opinion to overturn the fifty-year-old legal president known as Roe vs. Wade which sanctioned a women’s right to choose. Many of those talking heads are citing what they believe to be Constitutional text giving Supreme Court Justices “lifetime tenure in office.” We should be careful when quoting documents like our Constitution to be sure that we make our quotes accurate. Here is what our United States Constitution says:
“Article III, The Judicial Department,
“Section 1,
“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. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.”
So, it is not “lifetime tenure of office” unless it is a lifetime of “good behaviour.” Perhaps some readers believe that when Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch told Senators that they believed Roe vs. Wade to be “settled law”, they weren’t lying and lying isn’t bad behaviour anyway. Perhaps some readers believe it is ok for those consenting Justices in this opinion to conflate their religious beliefs with our laws even though we have long-standing “separation of church and state.” Perhaps some readers don’t think that fifty years of legal president is sufficient to qualify as “stare decisis.” Whatever you believe, the responsible thing to do is research your belief and get comfortable because the public debate is going to continue. For me, what happened last Friday was not “good behaviour.”
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