Brian Bengs
October 29, 2026 · Newsletter
No More Corruption in the Supreme Court
I ask South Dakotans two questions when I first meet them. First, is Congress working as it was intended in the Constitution, for the benefit of you and fellow South Dakotans? Second, do you think our elected officials are truly working for us, or those wealthy billionaires and corporate interests that write them large campaign checks?
The answers I’ve gotten from literally every single person I’ve spoken to are “no” and “duh, money talks.”
When we get to talking about Big Money in our political system, the conversation eventually meanders to the Supreme Court. South Dakotans want money out of the system, and they’re appalled that the Supreme Court is allowed to operate in such a corrupt and unlawful manner.
Our dumpster fire of Big Money in politics is the Supreme Court’s fault. It unlocked the doors of corruption in 2010 through the Citizens United decision, making untraceable dark money a major force in politics, just like we’re seeing this year in South Dakota. While a lot can be done to undo it from the legislative branch, there’s only so much Congress can do (or rather, will do once I’m elected).
The Court is also decimating the Voting Rights Act, approving partisan gerrymandering, and loosening campaign finance restrictions. Our republic is under assault by corruption, and the Supreme Court is just another vessel for corruption to rear its ugly head. The winners will be ultra-wealthy billionaires, mega-corporations, and special interests. The American people will be the ones who lose.
What can we do about it? We can elect leaders who will place Court reform as a top priority. If you ask my opponent about it (if you could find him), I’m sure he’d feign surprise at the notion that the Supreme Court is corrupt.
The polling shows this race is neck-and-neck. South Dakotans are ready for change, we just need to make sure they hear my message. If you can chip in $30 today, it will ensure that we can keep my ads on the air, so we can deliver a real voice for South Dakotans. Thank you.
Four days left! Help support my campaign
Unsurprisingly, he benefits from the corrupt system that these Supreme Court decisions have fostered. Just look at the outside special interest groups spending money in our state to influence the Senate election. If Mike Rounds didn’t have that outside spending, or the corporate interests giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign, we’d be fighting this election on even ground.
Fixing the Supreme Court doesn’t have to be complicated. For a body as critical and foundational to our republic, it should be simple. I’m not a fan of “court-packing,” as it’s a temporary solution that will only create the same problems later down the road. Instead, we need to raise the bar for qualified appointees and institute 18-year term limits for Supreme Court Justices.
These 18-year terms would be staggered, meaning a new Justice would be appointed every two years. They would remove the unpredictability and political games from a body that should be as apolitical as possible.
The Senate can also set its own rules for appointees considers for nomination to the Supreme Court. In my mind, the best approach would be to limit the pool of potential appointees to existing judges based on their experience in lower levels of the judicial system. This is ideally how the system works anyway, but unwritten rules are prone to be ignored and forgotten on a whim. We should make the rules official, so everyone can be held accountable for following them.
The process would be similar to military ranks, which ensures the most senior people have genuine, practical experience at every level and understand the nature of the organization. It also emphasizes and reinforces the public service aspect of the position completely, rather than having just partisan foot soldiers who will answer to money. As I rose to Lieutenant Colonel, my experience at lower ranks was invaluable in continuing to do my job.
The Supreme Court is the only branch of government whose decisions are immune from oversight. While I’ve accused our U.S. Senate of having non-existent ethics enforcement, the Supreme Court justices exemplify this even more. Supreme Court ethics must be externally enforced, not left to the individual justices to decide for themselves.
I believe that our Founding Fathers built a system of government designed to last. If we want to keep our republic, we need to keep the vision alive, especially as the march of time exposes gaps that were originally filled with tradition and good-faith practices.
There is no oversight nor accountability for the Court to anybody or anything. It may have worked in the past, but it isn’t working right now. That must change.
Thank you for reading.
Brian L. Bengs, Lt Col (Ret)
Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate
We’re sprinting through the finish line because this race is winnable. I need your help to reach as many South Dakotans as possible with my common-sense Independent message. Together, we can win this and deliver a voice for South Dakotans. If you can chip in $30 today to support our final push before Election Day, it will go a long way in achieving real change.