In the greatest judicial scandal since an earlier Supreme Court treated blacks as the property of whites, the current Supreme Court treats democracy as the property of those with the money to buy it.

Democrats, liberals and populists should promote a constitutional amendment to reverse Supreme Court decisions, propose statewide ballot initiatives to take back America from special interests, and make corruption in Washington a defining issue to mobilize the Democratic base, rally political independents and transform the 2014 and 2016 elections.

Five conservative Republican men serving on the Supreme Court, led by a chief justice who has violated 200 years of judicial precedent, despite pledging under oath during his confirmation hearings to respect judicial precedent, are waging a legal war of mass destruction against core principles of American democracy established by our Founding Fathers.

These five conservative Republican justices — two of whom have had ethically troubling relationships with interested conservative Republican groups that benefitted mightily from decisions rendered with their votes — have corrupted our democracy in ways that would outrage the founders, who united to condemn the evils of self-interested factions whose greed Chief Justice John Roberts embraces.

In the Potemkin justice of the Roberts court, the right to vote is under attack, while the power to buy elections is sanctified by law. Corporations are called people under a faux doctrine of free speech, while women are denied standing to combat discrimination.

The separation of powers enshrined by the founders is being eviscerated by five unelected and life-tenured Republican conservative justices who routinely usurp the prerogatives of the president and Congress. Through repeated party-line votes in political decisions, they seek to radically rewrite the rules that regulate elections, to the advantage of the parties and interests they favor.

Roberts, in an abuse of discretion that would make Vladimir Putin proud, with contempt for judicial balance and fair play, has packed the surveillance court designed to safeguard our liberty with judges appointed by Republican presidents. Here a secret court hears secret evidence, in secret cases, before rendering secret decisions, after only one side presents evidence.

The corrupted state of our democracy was brilliantly described by Edward Luce in a must-read column in the Financial Times titled “America’s democracy is fit for the 1%.”

The inevitable result of the court empowering the 1 percent to spend unlimited money to buy elections, undermining the right of the 99 percent to vote, legally disenfranchising women from seeking equal pay and absurdly designating corporations as people is to guarantee disparities of income and justice that generate historic ill will against Washington.

Surveys of polling from Gallup and Real Clear Politics show hostility toward Congress rising to 80 percent of voters. Large majorities condemn the Citizens United decision by the court.

Roberts will someday be impeached by the high court of history and future Supreme Court majorities.

Roberts and his four conservative Republican brethren will ultimately be impeached by historians who will condemn, and future courts that will reverse, politically illegitimate and constitutionally deformed rulings that would turn America into a constitutional oligarchy.

No court should rule that America can be purchased as property by those with the money to buy it, as black slaves were once purchased by white masters, with judicial sanction from an earlier Supreme Court that was ultimately discredited and condemned.

The founders never intended the democracy of our entire nation to be held hostage by five men who are contemptuous of legal precedent, separation of powers, the cardinal value of one person, one vote, and the timeless truth that all men and women are created equal.

In a nation where a majority of citizens oppose these anti-democratic rulings of the Roberts court, and view Washington as a corrupted house of ill repute, if Democrats take this case to the country in 2014 and 2016, they will win.

Brent Budowsky

The Hill