Jeff AtwoodFeb 12

Many political scientists and constitutional scholars now describe the U.S. Constitution as "constructively unamendable." This means that while it is legally possible to change it, the political reality makes it functionally impossible.

Because the amendment process is broken, the energy for changing the "rules of the game" has shifted to the Supreme Court. Since the Constitution cannot be easily changed by the people, political groups fight to appoint judges who will "interpret" the Constitution to mean what they want:

  • In many other democracies, abortion rights were settled by legislation or constitutional referendum. In the US, it was granted by the Court (Roe) and taken away by the Court (Dobbs), because the amendment process was too paralyzed to address it.
  • The Citizens United ruling fundamentally changed the political landscape. To overturn it would require an amendment, which is currently impossible, so the Court's word stands as final.

...

Scholars refer to this as 'constitutional calcification.' The U.S. has the hardest constitution to amend in the democratic world. Until the partisan divide softens or one party achieves a massive, generational dominance, the U.S. is likely stuck with the Constitution exactly as it is.

Show threadPete Gontier
@codinghorror All true, but it’s also a self-fulfilling prophecy. We normals confuse Supreme Court rulings with legislated law. For example, SCOTUS doesn’t prohibit Congress from passing legislation about abortion. SCOTUS only rules on laws affecting abortion in the **absence** of legislation from Congress. Republicans are merely too cowardly to allow themselves to be forced to demonstrate, on the record, their contempt for women. SCOTUS would be likely to strike down whatever Congress passed only if it were poorly written, and that problem is fixable by passing another law. Meanwhile, back in reality, we don’t even try because cowardice.
Mar 23 at 11:58pmWeb