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posted by on Thursday April 13 2017, @02:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the proven-solutions dept.

The Center for American Progress reports

After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) decision to prevent a president of the opposite party from nominating anyone to the Supreme Court, it's doubtful that any justice will ever be confirmed again when the presidency is controlled by a different party than the Senate. That means America will lurch back and forth between extended periods with a understaffed Supreme Court, followed by massive shifts in the law as one party fills a backlog of vacancies.

[...] Several states have shown that there is a better way [than what, it appears, will happen at the federal level from now on].

The Missouri plan

As America struggled through the Great Depression, Missouri's courts were a den of partisanship and corruption. As former Chief Justice of Missouri Michael Wolff explains, judges were "selected in elections in which nominees were chosen by political parties under a patronage system." In much of the state, judges were selected by a single machine party leader, "Boss" Tom Pendergast. Throughout Missouri, "judges were plagued by outside political influences, and dockets were congested due to the time the judges spent making political appearances and campaigning."

Frustrated with their politicized judiciary, the people of Missouri passed a ballot initiative replacing the state's corrupt process with a non-partisan coalition--at least for the state's top judges.

When a vacancy arises on the state's supreme court, a seven person commission consisting of "three lawyers elected by the lawyers of The Missouri Bar . . . three citizens selected by the governor, and the chief justice" submits three candidates to fill that vacancy to the state's governor. The governor then has 60 days to choose among those three names. If the governor fails to meet this deadline, the commission selects one of the three.

Finally, after a year of service, the newly appointed judge must survive a retention election, where a majority of the electorate can cast them out of office--though this only happens rarely.

This method of judicial selection, as well as variants upon it, was adopted by many states since its inception in Missouri.


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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:39PM (5 children)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:39PM (#493545)

    Oh wait... we do have those...
    " rel="url2html-6455">http://www.businessinsider.com/9-facts-about-the-uss-backpack-nukes-2014-2?op=1

    According to Wikipedia they were taken out of circulation in 1968. So "have" in the sense of "maybe there are some sitting in a secure warehouse somewhere that haven't completely decayed yet."

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  • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:56PM (4 children)

    by vux984 (5045) on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:56PM (#493560)

    " So "have" in the sense of "maybe there are some sitting in a secure warehouse somewhere that haven't completely decayed yet."

    The point is the technology already exists and is 50 years old. So there is really no reason some prepper can't build one himself right? Or for a private group of citizens to place an order with a weapons supplier. Just because the government isn't actively using them, doesn't mean private citizens can't. I mean, the US military doesn't use LOTS of weapons that a private citizen is welcome to procure...

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 13 2017, @07:00PM (3 children)

      by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday April 13 2017, @07:00PM (#493563)

      So there is really no reason some prepper can't build one himself right? Or for a private group of citizens to place an order with a weapons supplier.

      For a nuke? I'm not going to assume nuclear weapons are things you can easily build in your garage (and not irradiate yourself in the process, and have the thing actually work) or buy from a dude in a 7/11 parking lot at midnight.

      --
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      • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Thursday April 13 2017, @08:24PM (2 children)

        by vux984 (5045) on Thursday April 13 2017, @08:24PM (#493612)

        You are focused on the wrong question; its really not a question of difficulty to do in ones garage.* The point is we have the tecnhology and it qualifies as 'man portable'.

        Do you think individuals should be allowed to procure one? It doesn't really matter for the sake of this discussion HOW they procure it. Whether they build it themselves, or order it from Amazon, or if walmart stocks them is immaterial. If we are entitled to have them under the constitution then presumably some sort of supply chain should be legal.
         

        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 13 2017, @09:42PM (1 child)

          by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday April 13 2017, @09:42PM (#493646)

          I suppose the same question would apply if a guy decided to build his own battleship. I'm not familiar with what rules cover private military contractors.

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          • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday April 14 2017, @12:08AM

            by vux984 (5045) on Friday April 14 2017, @12:08AM (#493716)

            I suppose the same question would apply if a guy decided to build his own battleship.

            Or a hand grenade. Which is also prohibited.