Vance says courts are overturning the will of the people. He’s wrong.
Most Americans actually want the courts to check presidential power.
There’s an interesting debate to have about how much public opinion should influence what elected representatives do in a representative democracy. They’re supposed to, you know, represent their constituents, but the expectation is that they will also use their own judgment — otherwise there’s no point to electing representatives, we’d just do it all by direct democracy. As Burke put it:
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
(Edmund Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol, 3 Nov 1774)
But last week, Vice President JD Vance in an interview with The New York Times’s Ross Douthat took the opposite view, that the people’s will is paramount, even for the court system.
“I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people. … I saw an interview with chief Justice Roberts recently where he said the role of the court is to check the excesses of the executive. I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment.”
Now, of course he is incorrect that the courts should be bound by the will of the people; federal courts were set up to explicitly not have to answer to voters. But even if he was correct, he’s still wrong about the will of the people - and it may not be why you think.
Read my National Journal column (unlocked until June 7) to see why.
