The Stakes Go Way Beyond Kavanaugh

Time: “It is tempting to see l’affaire Kavanaugh as just another contemporary political carnival, replete with angry protests and partisan recriminations. But it could hardly have more serious consequences… It’s the latest evolution of a nominally non-partisan institution into an instrument of politics.”

“The court has always been the most hermetic of the three branches of government, a mysterious and secret world into which the public gets only stray glimpses. The Justices rarely speak publicly, and they take pains not to weigh in on partisan matters… The court asks us to trust a process we cannot see. More than the other two branches of government, which are held accountable to voters and can write laws and make policy, the Supreme Court derives its very power from the public’s willingness to respect and abide by its decisions. The extreme exposure of modern politics makes that harder and ­harder.”