I like your usage of "forced birth", hadn't seen it before, at least not enough for my ancient brain to have recorded it. You mention that presidents who appoint federal judges can have lost the popular vote and in fact a majority of the current court was appointed by a president that lost the popular vote but won the presidency ... at least once. Two GWB appointees were appointed after GWB won reelection, but he most certainly would not have been president fill those vacancies had the candidate who won the national popular vote in 2000 assumed the presidency. These days appointments to the supreme court almost always (all current justices except Elena Kagan) come from the federal judiciary, usually the appellate judiciary and the president also appoints those future supreme court justices as well (justice Thomas served a very short time before being appointed as a supreme ... thank you (not) John Danforth) ... so yes, the supreme court (as well as the rest of the federal judiciary) is not at all a democratic (small "d") institution.
Magnifique!
I like your usage of "forced birth", hadn't seen it before, at least not enough for my ancient brain to have recorded it. You mention that presidents who appoint federal judges can have lost the popular vote and in fact a majority of the current court was appointed by a president that lost the popular vote but won the presidency ... at least once. Two GWB appointees were appointed after GWB won reelection, but he most certainly would not have been president fill those vacancies had the candidate who won the national popular vote in 2000 assumed the presidency. These days appointments to the supreme court almost always (all current justices except Elena Kagan) come from the federal judiciary, usually the appellate judiciary and the president also appoints those future supreme court justices as well (justice Thomas served a very short time before being appointed as a supreme ... thank you (not) John Danforth) ... so yes, the supreme court (as well as the rest of the federal judiciary) is not at all a democratic (small "d") institution.