Judge Griffith says 'no SCOTUS reforms needed'

The NLJ has Supreme Court Reform Doesn't Pass Smell Test, Says Retired DC Circuit Judge -- "They [the justices] overturned me a couple times and I thought they were wrong," said retired Judge Thomas Griffith, who served 15 years on [the D.C. Circuit] "But that doesn't mean that my reaction to that ought to be to change the composition of the court."

Do you think the Supreme Court is in need of reform at this moment? No, I don’t. I start with great suspicion of any recommendations that the Supreme Court be changed in its composition, its procedure, its jurisdiction or anything that’s born in partisan politics. And that’s where this comes from. This isn’t a good-government proposal. This is born of frustration with the decisions of the Roberts court. And so I’m just immediately distrustful of any set of recommendations that the Supreme Court change the composition of its members, jurisdiction, whatever, when the driving force behind them is dissatisfaction with the court’s opinions. Recommendations, suggestions that are made from that place I consider to be a threat to the independence of the judiciary. We’re not imagining that we’re back in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 writing on a blank slate. If that were the exercise, I would look very differently on suggestions than where we are right now. This is a partisan attack on the independence of the judiciary. I’m afraid there’s no other way to put it. Therefore, I’m very distrustful of that, whether it comes from the right or from the left.

The NLJ also has How a New 3rd Circuit Website Helps Make Court’s History ‘Come Alive’ -- “People view the courts as this establishment, but when you listen to oral histories … it's really about individual people coming together to make this happen," said Third Circuit librarian Melissa Bernstein. "The character of the court changes every time there's a new judge who comes on.”

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