GET THE SUPREME COURT OUT OF WASHINGTON (Corrected) Now why would anyone want to do a thing like that? What's wrong with having the Supreme Court in Washington? Hasn't it been there for two hundred years? Why move it now? All good points in their way. They're another way of saying "Quieta noli movere", an old Latin phrase meaning the same as "Let sleeping dogs lie". This is a good rule to follow, most of the time. The trouble is, the Supreme Court is far from being a sleeping dog. If it were, it wouldn't be kicked around by leftists for electing George W. Bush President, as they claim, or by rightists for clinging to Roe v. Wade, as they claim. Both sides are sure politics, not law, inspired these judgments. The continuance of the Court in Washington lends credibility to their arguments. Washington isn't just a political town. It's the political town in excelsis. The banks, the hotels, the law firms, the bars, the restaurants, even the...other establishments are Democratic or Republican. The people eat, sleep, live and breathe politics. Why not? Politics is the main industry, the reason for the city's existence. If you're in the game it's the Promised Land. My point, of course, is that the Supreme Court isn't in the game. But, as we've seen, crowds of people are only too willing to believe otherwise. So my idea is prudential. Moving the court out of the D.C. hotbed will help to lull the suspicions of these people, even if it doesn't wipe them out forever. How can anyone blame people for being suspicious when they read every day about what social lions the Justices are in Washington? The hip hostesses consider it a feather in their caps to snare one of them for a dinner party. When the guests sit down, the Justice as the guest of honor sits on the right hand of the hostess. On his right hand he finds her best friend, who may just happen to be a partner in a leading law firm that does a lot of business with the Court. Or maybe her husband's the partner. After a while the Justice doesn't care. His food is delicious, his wine is, well, intoxicating. He is being vamped from two sides at once. He thinks he has died and gone to heaven. Next week, when the lady lawyer arrives at court, she will sweep all before her. Don't laugh. This stuff actually happens. For enlightenment I recommend looking into the recent biography of Justice William O. Douglas, on the Supreme Court from 1939 to 1972. ("Wild Bill". New York; Random House, 2003) If this book didn't inspire the movie "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", it should have. For over thirty years the honorable Justice had a career of boozing, abusing (women) and bamboozling (creditors) that cries out for dramatization by Oliver Stone or Stephen King. It all went on in full view of his "brethren"on the court. None of them noticed a thing. Could it be they had fiddles of their own going? A couple of them admitted when they were safely retired that they had extracurricular sources of income while on the Court. Douglas, of course, had a few of these, including money he borrowed from lawyers who appeared before him. (They never lost a case). Washington offers too many opportunities for the kind of corruption that Douglas wallowed in. Objections to transferring the Court out of town just won't stand up. Locating the judges in D.C. made sense when the country was a fraction of its present size, mostly roadless, without communications, in other words primitive. If the court were anywhere else, it was theoretically possible that an important case could be decided without the rest of the government knowing for a month or more. But today, can anyone say that it's important for the Court to be on the spot so as to know the thinking of the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties? That's not what it's all about, is it? What will we do with the basilica they presently inhabit in Washington? It might make a useful courthouse for the District of Columbia, except for the fact that the clientele thereat would not be of the choicest, a setback to the tourist trade. Still it might do. Take down the phony pillars, which don't support anything -- installed after the roof was on -- and let it get started on its new career. The Court would not have to worry about proper accomodations in its new location. Judging by the kind of palaces that have been erected around the country lately for Federal District Courts, it's unlikely that the Supreme Court would be short-changed in this area. I haven't said anything about where the Court should go because I have no axe to grind for any particular location. It's instinctive to think of the Midwest, the center of the country, as the proper place, but geography isn't decisive. The distribution of population is also important, and so is the character of the new seat of justice. This might seem to rule out a town like Chicago, but I wouldn't want to do that. Maybe the judges do need the stimulus of a major metropolitan area, where they also might exert a civilizing influence, and they don't necessarily have to be confined to Topeka or Wichita, two towns that keep coming into my mind, probably because I know nothing about either one of them. Wherever they go, the Justices will be news and they'll be in demand socially as well. The dangerous dinners of Washington might be replicated in the Heartland, but they're unlikely to be as demoralizing. Leaving Washington doesn't mean escaping political pressure completely; it means a reduction in its intensity. People in the rest of the country do think of other things as well. Even if they find themselves in a state capitol, life will be easier for the judges. They won't be living in a bubble inhaling nothing but political gas and vapors, which they then exhale into their decisions. In an atmosphere like Washington's it's natural to let that happen. They will always have the political effect of their decisions on their minds. It's a reflex from living there. When you wake up and look at your newspaper there it says "Tropical Storm Due; Seen as Setback for Bush". You can't escape. I don't say politics is a disease which will wipe out life on earth. I just say the Court should have a relief from it and should...smell the flowers.
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