I'm not a lawyer, but I worked in a lawyer-adjacent job while in the military once and ever since I've followed the law as a bit of a hobby. Even with a small bit of training and experience, I'm not exaggerating by much when I say that the average person has absolutely no idea how the law is interpreted or how legal procedure works.
I really believe a large number of people view lawyers as the real-world equivalent of wizards or sorcerers from D&D. You say the right incantations, and then through either knowledge or force of will, something you want to happen happens through the force of magic.
In reality, even the six in the majority are still (for the most part) interpreting the law, not forcing their policy preferences on it. But people who don't understand how the whole system works (or that the Justices more often than not rule unanimously, if not 7-2 or 8-1) just see the policy outcome and either go "I like it, Court good," or "I hate it, Court bad and illegitimate."
The article mentions Clarence Thomas has been courted (even bribed?) by the very people paying the lawyers trying to overturn Chevron. I think it's naive to believe the judges don't have policy preferences that are strongly reflected in their rulings... If that wasn't the case the GOP wouldn't have blocked nominations from Obama to get their preferred judges in.
For sure, the President and Congress try to get Justices who agree with them. But you only have to go back to Anthony Kennedy and David Souter to realize that once they're on the Court, the Justices don't seem to ever feel beholden to the party or President that appointed them. George H. W. Bush appointed Souter, who ended up as one of the most reliably liberal Justices on the Court. Trump has been consistently smacked down by the very Justices he appointed.
And as sketchy as some of Thomas's dealings look, he's one of nine. Assuming for the sake of argument that he IS bought and paid for, you still need at least four other people to sign on to anything he says for it to be a ruling.
>I really believe a large number of people view lawyers as the real-world equivalent of wizards or sorcerers from D&D. You say the right incantations, and then through either knowledge or force of will, something you want to happen happens through the force of magic.
A classic example is how many people call any law they don't like "unconstitutonal". The logical corollary is that any law they like must be "constitutional".
I really believe a large number of people view lawyers as the real-world equivalent of wizards or sorcerers from D&D. You say the right incantations, and then through either knowledge or force of will, something you want to happen happens through the force of magic.
In reality, even the six in the majority are still (for the most part) interpreting the law, not forcing their policy preferences on it. But people who don't understand how the whole system works (or that the Justices more often than not rule unanimously, if not 7-2 or 8-1) just see the policy outcome and either go "I like it, Court good," or "I hate it, Court bad and illegitimate."