“You want people who are moderates, who are not passionate zealots in any particular direction.”
Thomas Jefferson shares his thoughts about the workings of the Supreme Court, allows his personal irritations with the court to show, and explains how he feels the court has drifted from its rightful place in America today.
We speak with President Jefferson about the Supreme Court, and he has some opinions. Jefferson did not like the way we have come to define the tripartite system of government. He thought that the judiciary branch should be a very poor third cousin of the other two branches, but it has become so strong and he is a bit dismayed by that. Jefferson got upset about this partly because John Adams had appointed John Marshall as one of his midnight appointments, partly because John Marshall was so extremely clever and a great constitutional strategist, but also Jefferson wanted a simpler states' rights, more decentralized nation. We asked him for a way to fix this and it was a difficult question for Mr. Jefferson. He does say tear up the constitution from time to time and clarify the issue of the power of the Supreme Court, and he argued for limitations on judicial appointments.
Further Reading
- How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
- What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States by James Simon
- The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson by David N. Mayer
The Supreme Court: Political from the Get Go
The Jefferson Watch
What Would Jefferson Do?
“It is not a great privilege to name a Supreme Court justice.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
When you vote for president, you are also voting for his cabinet, his White House staff, his level of enforcement of the laws on the books, indeed, for his likely executive orders, and for his or her nominations to the U.S. court system, including the Supreme Court.
"The constitution ... is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please." — Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1819
Thomas Jefferson had a unique and slightly odd view of the proper place of the judicial branch in America. He thought of judicial independence as both a strength and a weakness of our system: you want judges that are independent of popular factionalism but you want them to be accountable to the sovereign, to the American people. Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson, discusses his concept of judicial balance, his lifelong displeasure with the Supreme Court, and some of the changes that he thinks should be made. He said of life-tenured judges, 'Few die and none resign.'