by First Liberty Institute • 5 minutes
Americans need to be on high alert. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has concluded its term, the radical Left and their politicians are getting more aggressive as they try to destroy our nation’s highest court and judicial system.
Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York introduced articles of impeachment against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, alleging “unchecked corruption.”
Over on the Senate, Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island requested a U.S. Department of Justice special counsel to investigate Justice Clarence Thomas. Why? Because of what they claim are “potential ethics violations.”
All of these attacks are just part of a fabricated smear campaign against the Court’s conservatives, who the Left sees as an obstacle to their agenda. This is all about destroying the reputation of specific justices in order to undermine the Court and the authority of its rulings.
If this were really about upholding the Court’s integrity, the radical Left wouldn’t hyperfocus only on conservative justices. The fact is, Leftists consistently ignore similar accusations of “ethics violations” against Democrat-appointed justices.
“They uttered not a peep when the now-deceased Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 2018 trip to Israel—including transportation, food, lodging, and everything else—was paid for by billionaire Morris Kahn, who did have business before the court,” Thomas Jipping at the Heritage Foundation pointed out.
Jipping also noted how the Left “looked the other way at Justice Stephen Breyer’s 2018 all-expenses-paid trip to Ireland and Spain, thanks to the largesse of the billionaire Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.”
“Caring more about power than liberty, the Left believes that its political ends justify their means,” Jipping added. “Leftists try to manipulate the Supreme Court, including smearing as ‘unethical’ justices the Left considers too independent, hoping Americans will automatically question anything they do.”
Americans shouldn’t be fooled by the Left’s narratives about the Supreme Court being “captured.” In an op-ed for WORLD, Dr. Hunter Baker—a fellow at First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy—exposes what all of these attacks on the Court are really about: power.
“If the left can convince the public that the Supreme Court has lost its independence and has become a mere organ of former President Donald Trump,” Baker explains, “then there is potentially great electoral benefit as well as future capture of the institution on the line.”
“This is a fairly transparent attempt to delegitimize the court for the sake of a political narrative at a minimum and perhaps more ambitiously for a potential court-packing attempt in the future,” he added. “By doing so, the American left seeks a political advantage, but it does so by undermining respect for the court as a stabilizing influence.”
In response to recent rulings, Left-leaning media outlets are pushing harder and harder for court-packing, claiming that expanding the size of the Court is the only way to “restore balance.” In virtually every headline or story you come across, many are urging the Democratic Party to make court-packing a central part of its election platform.
The New Republic published a piece titled “The Case for Expanding the Supreme Court Has Never Been Stronger.” Newsweek and the Washington Post published op-eds that called for adding seats and also “weakening” the nation’s highest court.
The New Republic made a rather superficial claim that “reforming the size of the court has happened many times over the years.” That argument twists history to make radical court-packing appear like just another common event in our political culture. But that’s far from the truth.
The size of the Supreme Court has only changed a few times in American history. There have only been seven changes to the Court’s size in more than 230 years since the Constitution was ratified. Plus, no changes in size have occurred in more than 150 years. According to an extensive historical study commissioned by First Liberty, only two previous changes in the Court’s size can arguably be categorized as outright court-packing attempts. And those rare partisan attempts to change the composition of the Supreme Court offer no justification for packing the Court today. Bottom line? Court-packing is not the norm.
As First Liberty has warned, court-packing is dangerous because it would turn the Supreme Court and the judiciary into nothing more than a tool of whomever holds power. Judges would lose their ability to enforce the rule of law with impartiality, and one of the most important pillars protecting our civil liberties—including religious freedom—would be gone.
When it comes to staging a Supreme Court Coup, the far Left wants to have all options on the table. So, this isn’t just about court-packing. This is a full-out attack on the judiciary from virtually every angle.
Laurence Tribe—a hard Left, radical college professor—published an op-ed for The Guardian, saying “there is a compelling need for supreme court reform, including a plan to impose an enforceable ethics code and term limits and possibly create several added seats.”
Slate—another notoriously Left-leaning publication—said the Supreme Court is “out of control” and put court-packing as the No. 1 “solution.” But they’re also calling for extreme and constitutionally suspect proposals, including “stripping courts of jurisdiction to hear challenges to specific, or all, federal laws or regulations.” They also advocate for judicial term limits, which are just another way to purge justices who rule in accordance with the Constitution, instead of the Left’s radical agenda.
Make no mistake. All the talk about restructuring the Supreme Court is nothing more than a brazen power grab. This isn’t about “saving democracy” or whatever other slogans the far Left throws out in news headlines. This is about some politicians—along with many of the country’s most radical groups—trying everything possible to wrest control and destroy the independence of our courts.
Read More:
Reuters: Ocasio-Cortez seeks US House impeachment of Supreme Court’s Thomas, Alito
Fox News: AOC files articles of impeachment against Justices Alito, Thomas, alleges ‘unchecked corruption’
Washington Examiner: Democratic senators step up attack on Thomas with demand for special counsel investigation
The Hill: Democrats take aim at Supreme Court with eyes on November
Newsweek: Opinion | With Calls To Expand Supreme Court, Liberals Hope To Skirt the Rules
WORLD: Is the Supreme Court a MAGA court? It’s a false charge and hotly political
Washington Times: Nine is fine: GOP platform vows to prevent Supreme Court expansion
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