Biden and every Democrat running for federal office in 2024 must make SCOTUS reform a priority!

The tyranny of the GOP judiciary has to end!!

We are faced with a radically partisan GOP controlled Supreme “Court” that has been working for the past few years to reshape America to match their right-wing vision of what the nation should look like. It’s literally jaw dropping when you review the numerous legal precedents overturned by these Republican justices in an effort to force their far-right agenda upon us.

The most obvious example is the GOP court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, thus, stripping women of a fundamental constitutional right.  This decision was not about the law, it was solely about the anti-choice activists in black robes on the court finally having the requisite votes needed—thanks to Donald Trump—to end the right to reproductive freedom. Since Roe was overturned, 14 GOP controlled states have in fact fulfilled the goals of the GOP justices by implementing total abortion bans—many even in the case of rape.

In 2022, the religious zealots of the court overturned the 1971 decision of Lemon v. Kurtzman that was created to preserve the wall between church and state. But the GOP theocrats on the bench in the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton ended what was known as “the Lemon test” in an effort to make it easier for lower courts to usher in “Christian nationalism.” (Overturning the Lemon decision is why the Louisiana GOP enacted the recent law to mandate the Ten Commandments in public schools--as I wrote about.)

Just last week, the GOP court again overturned long standing legal precedent by ending what was known for 40 years as “Chevron deference” which had required lower courts to give wide leeway to decisions made by the federal agencies charged with implementing federal laws. But conservatives have long been gunning for Chevron since this legal principle empowered federal agencies to implement regulations that protected people but cost GOP donors money—such as regulations dealing with protecting the environment, addressing climate change, worker protections, food and drug safety, the financial sector and more.

Then there are their decisions that have weakened rights on the way to ultimately ending. These include this GOP Supreme Court further undermining the Voting Rights Act, striking down a century old gun law designed to save lives from gun violence and in 2023, the GOP justices rolled back anti-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community in the name of “religious freedom.” 

Beyond that, there is the conservative justices continued efforts to legalize political corruption apparently because it helps their wealthy GOP benefactors-like Clarence Thomas’s Harlan Crow--as we saw last week in the outrageous decision of Snyder v United States. In this case, the six GOP justices ruled that people can give government officials lavish gifts, send them on vacations, or simply pay them thousands but it won’t be considered an illegal bribe as long as the gifts/money is paid after—not before—the official action. Instead that will be viewed as a “gratuity.”  I’m not kidding. As Justice Kavanaugh wrote, “bribes are payments made or agreed to before an official act in order to influence the official with respect to that future official act.” Gratuities, by contrast, “are typically payments made to an official after an official act as a token of appreciation.” 

Finally, this week we saw the six GOP justices in essence rewrite the US Constitution to provide absolute immunity to the president for a range of actions not contemplated by the Framers of the Constitution. That is why Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her powerful dissent about the decision, “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

The GOP Supreme Court created this immunity to both help Donald Trump avoid criminal accountability for his attempted coup and--potentially more alarmingly--to empower future GOP presidents to greatly push the bounds of what is permissible in a Republic. They know President Biden and Democratic Presidents would not do this. The decision was bluntly crafted to lay the groundwork for future right wing authoritarian president who is cloaked with absolute immunity.

It was great to see President Biden address the nation Monday night to slam the immunity ruling saying the court had done a "terrible disservice to the people of this nation." Biden rightfully added, "No one is above the law, not even the President of the United States."

But Biden did not call for Supreme Court reform. That is something the President and all Democrats running for federal office in 2024 must do.

Bluntly, there’s simply no way that any Democrat running in 2024 for federal office can credibly tell us they will fight for reproductive freedom, equality for the LGBTQ community, preventing discrimination against people of color, saving lives from gun violence, protecting voting rights and our democracy, addressing climate, etc. if they do not make reforming the Supreme Court a top priority. After all, it is this GOP Supreme Court—not Congress—that is the one changing policies on these vitally important issues.

The issue of SCOTUS reform is not only grounded in valid policy concerns, but also politically a winner as well. Recent polls find approval levels for the US Supreme Court at all-time lows.  The reason is apparent. Seven in ten registered voters believe the Supreme Court is “mainly motivated by politics,” as a 2023 Quinnipiac poll found. Backing that up is an AP poll from last month where 70% say the justices are less about impartiality and more motivated by ideology.

This explains why nearly 70% or more of Americans support a range of reforms to the Court. For starters, a recent AP poll found 67% of Americans support a proposal to set a specific number of years that justices serve instead of life terms, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans. A same number support an age limit for serving on the Court.

Interestingly, 60 percent of Americans in that same poll think there should be an equal number of Democrats, Republicans and independents on the high court. That is something I can see appealing to people like President Biden to champion given it’s focused not on “packing” the court but balancing the court. SCOTUS reform must also include ethics laws--which is supported by 75% of Americans.  

If Biden wants to unite and energize Democrats, here is a perfect issue. SCOTUS reform is intertwined with protecting every issue we care about as Americans.

That is why Biden must lead the charge to defeat the GOP controlled Supreme Court the same way we are working to defeat the GOP controlled House. Both are tools of the Republican party used to usher in a right-wing agenda. Thus, both must be defeated!

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