Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Getty Images and Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.disastrous performancedeference”—shifting an immense amount of power away from Congress and the executive branch toward the judiciary.
At a certain point, it is actively misleading to put too much stock in, say, the performance of a candidate on a debate stage. The government is vast. It is run by a bunch of agencies, most of which you probably haven’t heard of, that are staffed with experts who have a deep knowledge and experience in a particular subject matter, alongside lawyers who want to make government work for the people.
Implicit in what Mark is saying, I think, that whichever candidate wins the election, the Supreme Court is going to be there to dismantle the regulatory state. That’s the real story here underneath everything else. Even if a Democratic president prevails—even if, somehow, a vigorous, 39-year-old Democratic president were elected—the Supreme Court would still be there to kneecap their attempts to deal with climate change, securities fraud, pension fraud, medical emergencies, and more.