Thank you for your reply.

In short, "weak ass arguments receive rebuttal for being weak ass arguments." The Court is fine to actually start issuing judgement that follows in step with the history of the court. But then you have something like Dobbs and the majority opinion.

I completely agree. I think that I gave the impression that everyone needs to sing kumbaya and that is not what I meant to convey. Roberts I think is trying to respond to the increased scrutiny and while I disagree with his approach, I understand his reasoning/goals. The court is in the spotlight way more than it has been and he sees that I suspect correctly as unhealthy for the institution. To the question of if it should be, I think the obvious answer is yes, in light of recent actions there should be more scrutiny. There should be zero concern that there is influence peddling or neglecting precedent because of ideological lean of the justices.

At some point we just say in law "protect animals that might go extinct", "fix our highways", and "protect our armed forces" and let the Executive dictate how best to achieve those goals.

Yes, but with respect to reproductive health rights, that should have been legislated as an amendment long before the court was packed by the Trump administration. Congress is at fault for not enshrining those rights, especially given the long history of speculation regarding the "Legitimacy/Cleanliness" (eye roll I know) of the Roe decision. Instead numerous congresses preferred have campaigned on the very actual threat that those protections under Roe would be taken away and now here we are. I could see your point that there is benefit to a federal vagueness because on occasion because it allows the states to experiment but I think there are some decisions we just need to put to bed and move forward.

How are you left unserved by your supposed current model of governance? Yes, you might be unserved because the political party system is fucked but that is distinctly NOT a function of the balance of power between branches as outlined in our form of government.

If I use this gallup poll data from 5/2/22
Should abortion be legal

• Legal under any circumstance 35%

• Legal under certain circumstances 50%

• Illegal under any circumstance 13%

If that is where the general public is, why can't congress pass laws? In, this sense I am unserved because every 4 years we are going to roll the dice on how federal laws will be executed. To have something lasting we need amendments and bills speaking to these issues with more specificity. I am arguing that the court while absolutely a problem is a symptom of the larger sickness that is our legislature.

Again I thank you for your reply and any further contribution the discussion. It is nice to talk through the ideas.

Is there any sense when Congress went off the rails? Some folks I have listened to say it was around the 90s but there were obviously very contentious times before then.