Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) is right about one thing. In a brief recently filed in a Supreme Court case, he and several fellow Senate Democrats observed that a majority of Americans see the court as motivated or influenced by politics. The senators are wrong, however, to suggest that the “cure” for this situation is to restructure the courts so they render decisions that favor preferred political interests.
The public perception of a politicized judiciary is nothing new. In 1953,…