Better that we should strive to understand the judicial process as a means of promulgating accountability than to undermine the benefits of a fair and impartial judiciary able to make difficult decisions. And, of course, legislators and executives each plays a role in analyzing judicial decisions and has a responsibility to amend laws and regulations as appropriate. Removal of judges because of policy differences would interject chaos into our court system. Judges, whom we expect to decide cases based on a careful examination of the facts and thoughtful analysis of applicable law, would be subjected instead to the vagaries of shifting political currents. Decisions and opinions that resulted from days of hearings, hours of legal research and a great deal of careful scrutiny, would be dissected into sound bites and campaign commercials to be used in an impeachment proceeding or in the next election cycle.
Deliberate contemplation is the hallmark of the American judicial system.
Our judicial system is held in such high esteem that the emerging democracies view American courts as the model for emulation - and we cannot let that model be denigrated by partisan political attack. The fact is that our Founders intended for our courts to operate independently, to be a check on the temporarily popular. Judicial independence was constructed in order to assure that minority rights are protected against popular and powerful interests. And, as already suggested, independence doesn't mean lack of accountability. Not at all.