[rland]

The counter-point would be the criminal legal system, which has spectacularly failed to resist the influence of injustice, and not just historically! I suppose if you have only spent time in civil proceedings (depending on the type of proceeding...) you could hold the view that it is mostly free of corruption. On the federal judiciary, I think we really ought to dispense of the idea that political influence is somehow separate from jurisprudence. Recent events ought to have made that clear.

I'm a little bothered by how sacred the courts are in public imagination. I think it's actually harmful to consider them so. We deny that the courts are a fallible institution, which at times enables and empowers bad actors, at our peril.