Court-packing—the attempt to enlarge the size of the Supreme Court for short-term political purposes—used to be a dirty word in the history of American jurisprudence.
The tradition of a nine-person Supreme Court dates back to 153 years ago. The last attempt to expand it for political gain was President Franklin Roosevelt’s failed effort in 1937. FDR’s gambit was so blatantly political that even his overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress rebuffed him.
Yet now “court packing” is a law school cause celebre. It is touted as a quick fix to reverse the current conservative majority of 5-4.
A rough draft of an opinion, purportedly reversing Roe v. Wade’s decision that legalized abortion in all 50 States, was leaked to media by someone within the court.
This insider leak of a draft opinion was unprecedented in modern Supreme Court history. It was in violation of all court protocols. It was nevertheless met with overwhelming approval by the American left.
The leaker either intended to create a preemptive public backlash against the purported court majority in the hope that one or two justices might cave and switch under pressure—or to gin up the progressive base to fend off a likely disaster in the November midterm elections.
However, the recent leak is consistent with a leftist assault on the court that has intensified in the past five years. Democrats have gone ballistic ever since former President George W. Bush’s and especially former President Donald Trump’s appointees solidified a conservative majority.
During Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in 2018, protesters stormed the Senate chambers in protest. The left supported Michael Avenatti (now a felon) who published crazy, untrue allegations about Kavanagh as a teenager.
Later in spring 2020 Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) whipped up a demonstration right in front the Supreme Court. He directly threatened Justices Neil Gorsuch & Kavanaugh.
Gorsuch, I’m sorry, but I need to tell Kavanaugh that you have unleashed the whirlwind and will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.
What exactly did Schumer mean by “you will pay the price” or “you won’t know what hit you”?
Who or what would hit the two justices—and how exactly?
But the left is not just targeting the court. The left is open to long-standing institutions and constitutional directives.
At the 2020 funeral of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., former President Barack Obama crudely proposed bringing in Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., as states—and with them likely four left-wing senators.
Obama’s “eulogy” also damned the 180-year-old Senate filibuster. Obama was a senator who used the filibuster to block the nomination for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
The Electoral College is constantly under attack, especially since Bush 2000 and Trump 2016 were elected without the popular vote.
The Founders’ arguments for the Electoral College are never mentioned. The Constitution’s drafters felt that it required candidates to visit rural areas. They believed it would discourage multiple splinter parties of European design. It made voter fraud on a national level more difficult. It also highlighted America. The United States of America today is made up 50 states that are represented as such by presidential elections.
The Biden administration also failed to pass a national voting law. Such legislation would have superseded the states’ constitutional rights to set most of their own balloting protocols in national elections.
So what is behind leaking Supreme Court drafts of impending opinions, or seeking to pack the Supreme Court with 15 justices, or ending the Senate filibuster, or adding two more states to the 60-year-old, 50-state union, or curtailing states’ rights to set their own balloting procedures, or trashing the Constitution’s Electoral College?
The answer to those questions also applies to President Joe Biden’s promise to cancel millions of contracted federally guaranteed student loans simply by a pre-midterm election executive fiat.
How can Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas openly defy federal immigration law? How is he able to welcome millions of illegal immigrants to the southern border?
The answers are clear.
The hard left has deviated from the mainstream of American voters and moved onto a radical trajectory. It will never win 51% approval for any of its current crackpot and extremist initiatives.
Instead, it sees success only through altering the rules of governance or changing the demography of the electorate—or both.
Leftists must be careful about what they want.
Historisch speaking, Latinos are transforming en masse to become conservative voters.
The Leftists also encourage the creation of powerful precedents for the next Republican President. He could follow their lead and simply change any rules, laws, or customs he finds inconvenient.
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