My GMU colleagues Nelson Lund and Craig Lerner have a provocative piece over at National Review online suggesting how we can move the Supreme Court away from the current nine cults of personality that prevail to a more truly conservative Court:
Take away their law clerks….
We propose to leave the justices free to decide how many cases to hear, and which ones. But Congress should require them to hear at least one diversity case for every federal question case they accept for review….
Bring back circuit riding….
Eliminate signed opinions….
I’d give the Justices one clerk to handle mundanities like correspondence, administrative tasks, and proofreading and citechecking. I think this would take care of the problem of multiple, idiosyncratic opinions without resorting to doing away with signed opinions. Relying on mature lawyers (the Justices) rather than green clerks to decide which cases to grant cert. would likely also move the Court in the direction of accepting fewer nude dancing and more commercial cases. But I think riding circuit would be a lot more productive use of the Justices’ summers than whatever they do currently.
UPDATE: I cut this back because between my post and Todd’s below, we reprinted too much of the article.