The polls certainly look good for Joe Biden with less than three weeks to go before Election Day, but it puts a damper on my enthusiasm that we’re about to see this country overturn Roe v. Wade. I am certain that will be the result of Amy Coney Barrett joining the Supreme Court, although I can’t predict the mechanism or case that will serve as the vehicle.
I suspect we may see some other once unthinkable backsliding decisions, too, on environment protection, on financial regulation, on the scope of federal taxation, on gay marriage, on in vitro fertilization, on college admissions, and on voting and other civil rights.
The Affordable Care Act could be thrown out in total.
I’m still optimistic that Donald Trump will be not only defeated but humiliated, and possibly even incarcerated. But the country faces a lot of problems and a Democratic president and Congress could get right to work on addressing them in January. A lot of it won’t get past Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett.
There’s absolutely no way around this problem except to expand the Court. I really hate that solution, but I don’t hate it as much as being powerless and watching the world go to hell because everything we try to do is deemed unconstitutional by a radical, illegitimate bunch of gangsters.
Well, the necessary first step is to end Gravedigger of Democracy McConell’s 6 year Reign of Terror. Without that, “victory” is just more rearranging of the Titanic’s deck chairs.
I do want to say that there are other work-arounds out there available to Congress if one reads Article III, sec 2 of the Constitution closely. Yes, there’s no doubt whatever that a Congress and president can simply increase the size of any federal court they want by statute. That really can’t be challenged by a rightwing Supreme Court. But the Constitution also provides that the Congress can create “exceptions” to the “appellate jurisdiction” of the Supreme Court. (Appellate means “appeals”). So whenever the (hopefully Dem) Congress passes a new statute in the coming years (for example, one reforming the procedures for voting in federal elections, or a new Voting Rights Act, or an act to combat CO2 emissions, or a revision of the ACA), it can include a provision saying that the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction over any appeals involving the statute.
So, the Congress could expand the size of the various “conservatized” federal courts of appeal (to dilute all the democratically-illegitimate Trumpite judges that McConnell created) and then strip Roberts’ Repubs of jurisdiction to hear appeals on decisions of these (expanded) lower courts in cases involving new statutes. It is possible that Roberts Repubs would try to say that this practice somehow violates the “exceptions” clause, but in that case they themselves would have necessitated the final remedy of expanding the size of the Supreme Court. In any event this approach might be more politically palatable than moving immediately to expand the high court.
I partially agree with you. My issue is that if the end result is an expanded court, it’s better to do in early in a Biden administration. Otherwise the pressure from the useful idiots in the media as well as repug outrage will cause massive electoral damage in 2022.
I believe we need to dump the filibuster, expand the courts and hold the line in congress for two presidential terms in order to lock in the changes necessary to save this nation. Its a tall order. But if the action happens in 2022, I can see an uninformed public giving the republicans a divided government. And nothing will pass.
I think it all has to happen in the first 6 months. Then spend the next 18 dumping red meat and candy on the American public. Hell, tRump may not be in jail. And if hes not, he’ll still be tweeting at us constantly. He can be a convenient boogeyman piñata for the next few years.
Hello. I just threw it out there as an “all options” idea. Given that Gravedigger McConnell’s obvious strategy (which he’s already basically admitted) is to take the nation into a second Great Depression by refusing any new Covid relief, we on the left and center either end his Reign of Terror on Nov 3 or we don’t. And if we do, the legislative filibuster will either be abolished in the first 60 days of the new Congress, or the nation will go into its final death spiral. If Biden doesn’t understand this, his presidency is doomed before it began.
We are approaching the End Times for the US republic.
I’m not sure why it’s a bad thing. If there’s one thing the last two decades have taught us it’s that the public doesn’t care about norm violations at all. What the public cares about is results. If ambitious agendas require creative policy solutions which include a robust judicial jobs program then so be it. People will reward the pols who actually get stuff done. Because when people ask why the norm was broken they can point to the public option and say see, that wouldn’t exist if not for getting rid of the filibuster or expanding the SC or admitting dC and PR
This.
You could elect a Democrat as President, have him enact center-right policy, and the Republican Party will still declare that President as illegitimate and do everything in their power to prevent that President from doing anything. Bill Clinton was probably the most successful center-right President in history, and he got Impeached for it.
Didn’t Obama mainstream this at the John Lewis funeral? I mean, he mentioned adding seats to the Supreme Court, adding Puerto Rico and DC as states and ending the filibuster. This should not be controversial for the Democratic Party. I have to honestly ask what the point is for supporting Democrats, if after we give them the presidency and senate – and they fail to stand up for us.
Agreed. We should find a way to toss them out. Those are things we must get done. The first is kill the filibuster and no bull about it. Just do it.
If it isn’t Unconstitutional on its face, it needs to be an option on the table for January 20th, 12:01pm, IF Biden wins and Democrats take the Senate.
The Republican Party doesn’t give one fuck if the Democrats don’t break any “norms” and run the government from the Center-Right. The Republican Party, in order to continue the destruction of this country, WILL declare Biden as a Communist Socialist Fascist Terrorist and will do everything in their power to finish destroying the country.
Day 1: Nuke the fucking filibuster. Pass a $1.8T bill to give every US Adult $10,000, no means testing (let the Republican Party complain about all Americans getting money, see where that gets them). Save larger bailouts of the economy for AFTER bailing out the American people. Yes, $10,000 to every adult. Yes, $10,000. It is not some extravagant amount of money, it bails out actual Americans and will fucking rocket the economy out of this current depression. Yes. $10,000.
Day 2: Ask various territories if they want to become US States, tell them to hold an election, and if they vote yes, they can be. Add Senators, Add Representatives. And add another Appellate Circuit. Let the fascist fucks on the USSC think about whether they want to be 1/9, or 1/18.
Day 3: Open massive investigations into all aspects of the Trump Administration. These investigations need to be ABSOLUTELY TRANSPARENT. CSPAN and NPR need to be recording the investigations AS THEY UNFOLD. Chips fall where they may.
Day 4: Healthcare, Energy, Infrastructure Policy Goals established.
In other words, start swinging on Day 1 and don’t let the Republicans bitch about any of it for longer than a news cycle before they have to complain about something else.
1. Add six or more states. This should be the first course of action before anything else. This limits any political backlash in purple states and allows for democratic government that majorities want and say they want, while also allowing for power to be cemented.
2. Expand the courts or strip them of their jurisdiction for certain legislative affairs. Seems self-explanatory.
3. Pass new civil rights legislation.
Nope, not “court packing”. That’s Republican messaging language, aimed at retaining Republican control of the courts for the next generation.
What the country needs—and is long overdue for—is “court reform”. And not just the Supreme Court, but the entire federal court system.
There hasn’t been a major federal court reform bill enacted into law since the Carter administration. The country’s population has increased by 50% since then.
The 1st circuit court (Puerto Rico & most of New England) covers just 14 million people. The 9th circuit court covers 61 million.
Create 13 (or 15) more evenly divided circuits, and one Supreme Court justice for each of them. Set a term limit for the Supreme Court and stagger the terms so justices are replaced at regular intervals. If a judge dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated, the new appointee fills out the remainder of that term only.
IANAL (or an expert on the federal judiciary), so have at it with other ideas. But let’s be clear, both in theory and messaging, that what we’re aiming for is “court reform”.
I have zero faith that Biden, Schumer & Pelosi have any intention of 1) eliminating the filibuster (without first giving the R’s two years to dither away), or 2) reforming the courts. And neither should you. It’s just not in their makeup, and they have told us and shown us this on numerous occasions. Not gonna happen.
Which means President Nikki Haley in 2024.
You don’t mention it in the article (you call it “expanding the court”), but the title refers to “court packing”. Please don’t call it that. I guess that get’s people’s attention, but it’s not a good choice of words. That’s the Republican terminology. It’s loaded and is obviously meant pejoratively to refer to an obviously corrupt practice (which court expansion, or other reform proposal, isn’t), thereby drawing attention away from their own present activity (that is to say, court packing). Josh Marshall addresses this in a recent article; I now notice it in many places in the lefty blogosphere.
Nobody seems to take my suggestion seriously, but I’m serious. Offer the conservative justices $50 million each to retire to a nice “consulting” job. I’m sure the money can be raised.