Washington • Although many of the Supreme Court’s decisions have been contested and even condemned, its justices have been remarkably successful in performing the role Alexander Hamilton assigned them in Federalist 78: to be “an essential safeguard against the effects of occasional ill humors in the society.”
What Hamilton didn't count on was that the "occasional ill humors in the society" would infect how members of the court are chosen.
The moment during his presidential campaign when Donald Trump issued a list of potential Supreme Court nominees pre-screened by conservative ideologues guaranteed the extreme politicization we are witnessing.