Scholars Propose Emergency Court, If 4 or More Supreme Court Justices are Killed in Terrorist Attack
In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, constitutional scholars have done a lot of thinking about what would happen if a catastrophic strike took out top federal government officials.
Now the AEI-Brookings Continuity of Government Commission is proposing an advance plan for dealing with a situation in which four or more of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices were unable to hear cases. In a report (PDF) this month.
While the president of the United States would have the power to appoint temporary justices on an emergency basis without congressional approval, this could create political problems and legal uncertainty, especially if a large number of justices had to be replaced, the report explains.
It would thus be better, the report proposes, to create an emergency court ahead of time with an agreed panel of judges. Members of the emergency panel would fill in empty seats and decide cases, along with the surviving supreme court justices, until the nation’s top court could resume its usual operations.
The report suggests a number of changes in the law that should be made to facilitate this plan.
Hat tip: Associated Press.
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