If you went to a hundred working-class Germans in a pub, and asked them to name a single person on the German version of their Supreme Court....you'd get a total blank look. If this were a high-level politician or journalist....they might be able to name one.
Then at this point, the working-class German would respond that they do know the Justice Minister....citing Maas. But then you'd respond that Maas was the 'old' Justice Minister, and the new one is Katrina Bailey (SPD).
So then you ask on the US Supreme Court, and find that they (the Germans) can name two or three there. You quiz them....why?
Well....it's an odd thing. The public TV network (Channel One and Channel Two) have made this US Supreme Court topic a big deal on nightly broadcasts. Over and over, Germans are told that the right-leaning Court needs to be repaired, and only by putting the right figures into position, can that occur.
Why don't Germans have this same problem? Well....either a law is legal, or not. If not.....then they return the law to the Bundestag and instruct them to rewrite the law into the Constitution, with a deadline (typically eighteen months). The fine art of making law? Well....they force the Bundestag to actually write laws.
Why the necessity of covering the Justice business in the US? That is a debatable thing. You would think that each and every German has some second citizenship in their hand....for the US. If you asked regular working-class Germans over this....most would say that they don't get enough German news....as it is....about Germany itself.
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