First, the Supreme Court is highly resilient. While Americans are often unhappy with it — and can be quick to complain that its members are politically or ideologically driven — the institution is consistently held in higher regard than either of the “political” branches of government. The judicial robe confers a kind of exaltation on nearly everyone who wears it. Judicial sanctity may be a myth, but it is a powerful one; it reinforces our hope that this really is a government of laws, not merely of fallible human beings.
Second, justices are not easily intimidated. Granted life tenure by the Constitution, they are untouchable except by impeachment. In the 1950s and ’60s, as the Supreme Court greatly expanded civil rights and strengthened civil liberties, billboards appeared across the South that said, “Impeach Earl Warren.” But the chief justice and his brethren were unbowed. They knew that only one justice had ever been impeached — Samuel Chase, in 1804 — and he returned to the bench after the Senate acquitted him…
THE third danger for President Obama in picking a fight with the court is that it will allow his critics to portray him as unconcerned with the independence of the judiciary and eager to consolidate power in his own hands. The White House may be tempted to shrug off these concerns. But President Obama, like Roosevelt before him, is finding out just how real such fears are for some Americans — and how easily his opponents can exploit them. What Roosevelt really wanted, according to a leading Republican at the time, was a court that listened to its “master’s voice.” Many progressives and moderates, despite their allegiance to Roosevelt, came to share that suspicion.
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