Fix the Court

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Fix the Court is a non-governmental agency, in the United States, established in 2014 to lobby for reform of the Supreme Court of the United States.[1][2]

According to Influence Watch the organization is solely funded by liberal umbrella group the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.[3] They reported that the group's first advertizing campaign, when it was founded, in 2014, had a "six-figure" budget. The Free Beacon characterized the New Venture Fund as a "dark money group", meaning the group's donors and the amounts of their donations, are not clearly disclosed to the public.[4]

The group filed Freedom of Information Act requests for government records documenting the government careers of Neil Gorsuch and Brent Kavanaugh, prior to their nominations to serve as Justices of the Supreme Court.[5]

Security Today reported that an NGO, Fix the Court, has been critical of the lack of transparency over how this protection has been provided.[1] The group reported that Freedom of Information Act requests showed that Chief Justice Roberts did not ask for protection for the US leg of a trip to Japan. They reported that the Marshals protecting Antonin Scalia were unaware of his health concerns during his fatal 2016 trip to Texas.

Positions

Term limits for Supreme Court Justices

The organization lobbies for Supreme Court Justices to have a term limits of 18 years.[6][7] Former justices would be allowed to take appointments on lower courts. Former justices could make themselves available to be tapped to step in, temporarily, on cases where a sitting justice had to recuse themselves from a case.

The group claims, based on a poll following Brett Kavanaugh, nomination to the court, showed bipartisan support for term limits for Supreme Court Justices.[8]

Divestiture of assets

The organization calls for justices to either divest their assets, or put them in a blind trust, prior to their appointments

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Ralph C. Jensen (2018-10-10). "Securing the Supreme Court: Who protects the Court and its inhabitants?". Security Today. https://securitytoday.com/articles/2018/10/10/securing-the-supreme-court.aspx. Retrieved 2019-01-26. "Who protects the court and its inhabitants? Does the Supreme Court receive protection from the Secret Service? The short answer is no. Unlike most members of the federal judiciary, they do not received protection from the U.S. Marshals Service either." 
  2. Richard Wolf (2014-11-12). [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/12/supreme-court-powerful-accountable-fix/18872209/ "At Supreme Court, secretiveness attracts snoops Richard Wolf, USA TODAY Published 12:07 a.m. ET Nov. 12, 2014"]. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/12/supreme-court-powerful-accountable-fix/18872209/. Retrieved 2019-01-28. "The new effort, to be called "Fix the Court," is intended to bring more media and advertising firepower to what has been a diffused effort on the part of liberal, conservative and government watchdog groups concerned about the high court's renowned seclusion." 
  3. "Fix the Court (FTC)". Influence Watch. https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/fix-the-court/. Retrieved 2019-01-28. 
  4. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named freebeacon2015-10-22
  5. Stephanie Mencimer (2018-07-18). "Judicial Watchdogs Are in Court to Make Brett Kavanaugh’s Entire Record Public: An advocacy group has been fighting for a year to get the Supreme Court nominee’s federal records". Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/07/judicial-watchdogs-are-in-court-to-make-brett-kavanaughs-entire-record-public/. Retrieved 2019-01-28. "A month before President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court in January 2017, the nonprofit court watchdog group Fix the Court had already filed a Freedom of Information Act with the US Department of Justice." 
  6. Lydia Wheeler (2018-12-06). "Debate over term limits for Supreme Court gains new life". The Hill. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/419960-debate-over-term-limits-for-supreme-court-gains-new-life. Retrieved 2019-01-28. "Fix the Court, a group working to make the Supreme Court more transparent, is pushing for legislation that would set 18-year term limits, after which a justice would take a senior status role that would involve filling in when a justice needs to recuse themselves from a case. A justice who has served 18 years on the bench would also have the option of serving on a lower court." 
  7. Adele Peters (2018-10-01). "Should the U.S. Supreme Court have term limits?". Fast Company magazine. https://www.fastcompany.com/90244093/should-the-u-s-supreme-court-have-term-limits. Retrieved 2019-01-28. "'Life tenure isn’t doing much to ensure that the justices remain above politics,' says Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization that is calling for several reforms of the court. The group is advocating for a new system: Justices would serve 18-year terms, and presidents could appoint a new justice every two years." 
  8. Lydia Wheeler (2018-11-01). "Majority of Americans support term limits for Supreme Court justices, new poll finds". The Hill. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/414264-majority-of-americans-support-term-limits-for-supreme-court-justices. Retrieved 2019-01-28.