The Fight for an Independent Judiciary
A skeptical look at a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the legislature to pack the state supreme court.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The constitutional convention has amended the article reported by the committee on judiciary in a manner which is not to be approved. The amendment adds to the defined number of judges of the supreme court and the sentence: 'The legislature may increase the number of the supreme court from five to seven.' This is apparently done because the intention is that the legislature may increase the number of judges as the growth of the state and the consequent increase of business renders such increase necessary. A moment of reflection, however, will convince one that to grant this power to the legislature is both unnecessary and dangerous. It is unnecessary because a supreme court of five judges is as large a one as the state will require for generations. But the grant of this power to the legislature is not merely useless; if unaccompanied by restrictions, it is extremely dangerous. It places the supreme court completely at the mercy of the legislature and gives a party majority in the legislature the power to pack the court at its will and to overturn any decision that may not be in accordance with its views. The supreme court should be absolutely independent and should be free from party politics as it is possible for any judicial body to be.
“It places the supreme court completely at the mercy of the legislature and gives a party majority in the legislature the power to pack the court at its will.”
This editorial reflects the early anxiety of a developing Washington territory over the separation of powers. The debate over 'court packing' remains a resonant issue in modern American political discourse, though the context has shifted from frontier-era legislative expansion to current federal judicial appointments.
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