ATL Redline, Justice, SCOTUS

Nothing Would Be Gained From Knowing More About Health Of Supreme Court Justices

Yeah, SCOTUS justices will tell you about their health issues just as soon as someone makes them.

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John Roberts at Antonin Scalia memorial. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

John Roberts at Antonin Scalia memorial. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

With all the talk about Hillary Clinton’s health problems stemming from her chronic lack of a penis, to Donald Trump’s “I’m A Real Doctor” Oz reveal, Law.com decided to ask about the health of the Supreme Court. Tony Mauro, who is good at his job, emailed all the justices asking them about their health.

Chief Justice John Roberts responded on behalf of the Court, telling Mauro he could find out about his health behind an alley on First Street “any time you’re ready, son.” I’m joking, of course, but only a little. Here’s the response Mauro received:

“Thank you for your inquiry about my health and the health of my colleagues. You can expect to see an able and energetic Court when we reconvene in October. The Court’s Public Information Office will continue to provide health information when a need to inform the public arises.”

Yeah, SCOTUS justices will tell you about their health issues just as soon as someone makes them. Which no one can. Because they’re Supreme and can only be replaced over their cold, dead bodies.

Now, I don’t have a problem with that, but some people do. Law.com referenced the wealth of health information that was available for Antonin Scalia, but only after he died. Some argued that this information would have been useful to the American public, while he was still on the Court:

George Washington University Law School associate dean Alan Morrison, a longtime court-watcher, said that, if Scalia’s ailments had been publicly known before his death, the justice might have felt compelled to retire, resulting in a “more orderly succession.”

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Umm… did you ever meet Scalia? Or even, like, read any word he ever wrote? There is NO universe in which Scalia would have retired — under a DEMOCRATIC President, no less — because he had a bad cardiogram.

And, while Scalia was a particular pear, I don’t think any of them would be much different. If somebody told you that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been dead for a year and Lena Dunham had been writing her opinions, would you be totally shocked?

Here’s some more baseless wishcasting:

Northern Illinois University political scientist Artemus Ward, co-author of a book about how and why justices leave the bench, agreed. “Justices who know that their health will be disclosed to the public each year may step down before a negative report would be issued,” Ward said. “Those who favor term limits or mandatory retirement ages for judges would likely support such a disclosure requirement. It would likely lead to judges departing sooner rather than later.”

Okay, first of all, those who “favor term limits or mandatory retirement ages” are also those who have a secret plan for getting a constitutional amendment to that effect. Let’s not place too much stock in what “those” people want.

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Nobody can “make” a justice retire. You can impeach a justice, or STFU. The pressure that people imagine mounting on a justice as their yearly physicals look worse is not the kind of pressure you can bring to bear on a person with a lifetime appointment. Again, progressives spent the last four years begging RBG to consider retiring under Obama instead of risking dying under his replacement. Not only did she refuse, she seems to have been exactly right to do so.

And then there’s the issue that I’m not sure it’s even fair or just to try to force people to retire because they get sick. What if we found out that a justice had cancer? What would that mean? It wouldn’t mean they were any less able to do their job, until they died, at which point the we’d have to find a replacement. Interesting, that’s exactly what would happen if we didn’t know they had cancer.

In the end, Supreme Court health disclosures would undermine the public’s faith in the Court, while not actually changing how the Court functions in any way. Oh look, Clarence Thomas has a rare brain tumor that makes all of his words come out of his butt. SO? It’s still his job until he doesn’t want it anymore, or dies.

I think we’re putting too much stock in health disclosures from our politicians anyway. But, whatever, the voters have a right to know whatever the hell they want to know. For the Supreme Court, they’re appointed and then they serve until the die or retire. Yearly updates on how much fiber they’re getting doesn’t do anything for the Republic.

Supreme Court Justices Won’t Answer Questions About Their Health [Law.com]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. I think it’s best to assume that anybody can die of anything at any time, so live every day like it’s a game of Don’t Starve.

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