Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is once again at war with the Supreme Court. As one of the Democrats’ leading advocates of changing the composition of the court to advance a progressive agenda, she has again called for various “reforms.”
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Warren accused the Supreme Court of “actively undermining democracy.” The lawmaker told Host Jake Tapper and his viewers shared that they and some of their colleagues want to impose term limits for Supreme Court justices while also increasing the number of justices.
“Here is a man who was a transformational president. He accomplished an enormous amount, and yet he stepped down and passed the torch to Kamala Harris,” Warren said, referring to Biden. “Why did he do that? He did it as an act of patriotism for our nation. And he says we not only need a president who is going to be there for the nation and who is going to heal us and bring us together, we need to transform our Supreme Court.”
“Because right now we have a Supreme Court that has basically jumped the guardrails and is giving power to the president by saying the president can commit any act he wants and by saying Congress cannot give agencies authority to act. So we have a Supreme Court that is actively undermining our democracy,” she continued.
Democrats have been demanding “reforms” of the Supreme Court ever since it began ruling against their agenda. In particular, the rulings that Roe v. Wade, The repeal of unconstitutional gun control laws and the recent granting of some immunity to former President Donald Trump have caused a stir on the left.
To be clear, Warren and her colleagues are not seeking to change the composition of the Supreme Court because they want to protect “democracy.” Rather, they are pushing this initiative because they want a Supreme Court that will do their bidding.
Vice President Kamala Harris also expressed support for making these changes to the court in the past.
During a forum in New Hampshire in May 2020, a moderator asked Harris what she thought about adding up to four seats to the Supreme Court. The then-senator from California said she was “open to that conversation.”
Harris also expressed a desire to limit the number of justices a president can appoint and to eliminate lifetime appointments of judges. These and other reforms, she said, would restore the court’s legitimacy in the eyes of voters.
Two months before this forum, Harris had also indicated that she would be willing to consider enlarging the Court.
“We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the Supreme Court … we must meet this challenge head-on, and everything is on the table to do that,” she said.
Democrats by and huge did not push for term limits for Supreme Court justices or to pack the court when they had the majority. The calls became louder after Trump was able to appoint conservative judges who ruled against Democrats’ initiatives, making it clear that this is all about politics.
What these people fail to consider is the inevitability that expanding the court for political reasons will lead to an escalation in which future administrations do the same. While Democrats would likely try to put safeguards in place to prevent Republicans from following their lead if they gain control of the legislature and the White House, these could still be overcome, creating an absurd and threatening situation.
