by Jorge Gomez • 3 minute
Leading Democrats are saying their party would be “virtually certain” to pass a Supreme Court “reform” bill if they win the presidency and both houses of Congress.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland took part in a panel hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, one of America’s most Left-leaning organizations. The group has been a vocal supporter of court-packing, ending lifetime judgeships and other extreme proposals. They recently pledged $30 million to fund a think tank that will push to overhaul the U.S. Supreme Court.
Raskin and Whitehouse discussed plans to push for a more “progressive” agenda in 2025, which would include dangerous and sweeping changes to the nation’s highest court.
Whitehouse told the panel he’d go after legislation to end life tenure for Supreme Court justices and establish a “code of ethics and recusal rules.” The Rhode Island senator said his party would try to pass the bill by a simple majority, evading the Senate filibuster and the 60-vote threshold for legislation.
Whitehouse also said he’d tie Supreme Court “reforms” to an omnibus package with other major items for Democrats, and that such a bill could make its way through the Capitol “by this time next year.”
“We are not going to want to give the Republicans multiple stalls, multiple filibusters on this, so the bill that gets around the filibuster will be virtually certain to include permanent reproductive rights, permanent restored voting rights, getting rid of corrupting billionaire dark money, and Supreme Court reform,” Whitehouse said. “If you got a bill like that moving, it’s going to have spectacular tailwinds behind it.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently said that bypassing the legislative filibuster is an option for some pieces of high-profile legislation.
“We came close last time, as you remember, we couldn’t change the rules,” Schumer said about his party’s prior attempts to either alter or completely get rid of the filibuster. “But I think there would be a consensus in my caucus to try and do that.”
Sen. Whitehouse is no stranger to such legislation. He introduced the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act last fall, which would impose 18-year terms on the nine justices. That proposal is simply court packing by a different name. It’s a clear attempt to purge the longest-serving members of the Court first, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Rep. Raskin has also been one of the biggest contributors to the smear campaigns directed against the Court’s conservatives. He threatened Justice Alito if he didn’t recuse himself from cases over the supposed “upside-down flag” controversy. Raskin also introduced a bill to limit gift amounts to Supreme Court justices. He said this would help restore “integrity” to the Court. But it was really about making Americans hallucinate misconduct and destroying the Court’s credibility.
Whitehouse told Politico that he sees Vice President Kamala Harris as being more open to his proposals.
“Her staff and mine have been in touch through the administration— off and on, I would say—because I saw her as an ally who could be willing to take a more aggressive position on the judiciary issues we were dealing with,” Whitehouse said.
During the 2020 primaries, Harris said she was “open to this conversation” about court-packing. Harris also co-sponsored a bill that would force the high court to adopt an “ethics code.”
David B. Rivkin—who served at the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations—and Andrew M. Grossman—senior legal fellow at the Buckeye Institute—called Democrats’ court “reform” scheme dangerous and destructive.
“What Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris, Mr. Schumer and their party are attempting to do is wrong and dangerous. They aim to destroy a branch of federal government,” they wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “For faithfully carrying out its role, the court faces an unprecedented attack on its independence.”
The Biden administration’s court “reform” plan is a desperate attempt to impose a radical agenda by any means necessary. This whole scheme is an act of pure political revenge and a brazen power grab. If this Supreme Court Coup succeeds, it will destroy judicial independence, the rule of law and the constitutional order. Fighting for religious freedom means nothing if our judiciary is turned into a puppet of whomever holds power. If we lose our judicial system, it won’t be long before we lose all of our constitutional rights.
Read More:
First Liberty: Radical Court “Reform” Will Destroy a Judicial System That’s Worked for 230+ Years
New York Post: Kamala Harris supports radical legislation to pack the Supreme Court, appoint new justice every 2 years, Democrat senator says
Reason: Senate Democrats “Virtually Certain” to Pass “Supreme Court Reform” Bill By Majority Vote in 2025
The Dispatch: Democrats Still Hope to Remake the Supreme Court in 2025
Courthouse News Service: Democrats ignored Supreme Court reform at convention — and leading advocates in Congress don’t mind
Wall Street Journal: Opinion | Harris and Schumer Target the Supreme Court
Truthout: Panel on Supreme Court Reforms Lauds Ideas of Term Limits, Ethics Standards
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