Elizabeth Warren wants to expand Supreme Court by four seats, says it has been 'hijacked, politicized, and delegitimized by Republicans'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is calling on Congress to expand the Supreme Court by four seats. Warren claims that an expansion of the highest court in the land is necessary because it currently "leans into extremism."
On Wednesday, Warren tweeted, "Republicans have hijacked America’s Supreme Court to threaten basic liberties, settled law, and the very foundations of our democracy. There’s only one way to rebalance this broken institution and restore its integrity: We must #ExpandTheCourt."
The liberal senator from Massachusetts is especially concerned over the recent report that conservative Supreme Court justices have signaled that they could roll back the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights.
"Republicans steal power to ram through an extremist, unpopular agenda. Basic protections like Roe v. Wade, supported by 70 percent of Americans, are hanging by a thread," Warren said in the video. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg."
Warren called the Supreme Court "radical," and claimed it "opened floodgates for corporations to spend unlimited sums of money to buy our elections."
She alleged, "This is not a court that represents the will of the people."
"The only real solution now is to expand the Supreme Court," Warren asserted, calling to increase the total number of justices from nine to 13.
Republicans have hijacked America\u2019s Supreme Court to threaten basic liberties, settled law, and the very foundations of our democracy. There\u2019s only one way to rebalance this broken institution and restore its integrity: We must #ExpandTheCourt.pic.twitter.com/N6WIEHLAqn— Elizabeth Warren (@Elizabeth Warren) 1639596966
On the same day, Warren wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe titled: "Expand the Supreme Court."
"I don’t come to this conclusion lightly or because I disagree with a particular decision; I come to this conclusion because I believe the current court threatens the democratic foundations of our nation," Warren wrote of the Supreme Court that currently has a conservative majority of 6-3.
Warren alleged the Supreme Court has "threatened, or outright dismantled, fundamental rights in this country," and described it as an "extremist court."
"This court leans into extremism and partisanship," she said, "Without reform, the court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority will continue to threaten basic liberties for decades to come."
Warren alleged that if the Supreme Court isn't altered, it could "eviscerate the federal government’s abilities to fight climate change."
She opined, "But conservative justices’ recent decisions and their apparent appetite to overturn decades of precedent underscore one important truth: This court’s lawlessness is a powerful threat to our democracy and our country."
"Adding seats to the Supreme Court may be one of the few ways to deescalate the arms race around the court," Warren wrote.
Warren attempts to justify packing the court by saying that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "hijacked America’s Supreme Court" by denying "even a hearing to President Obama’s highly qualified nominee," in Merrick Garland.
"Four years later, [McConnell] reached new heights of hypocrisy when he reversed direction — breaking his own ‘rule’ barring votes on justices in an election year — to ram through the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett only days before President Biden’s election," she continued. "This Republican court-packing has undermined the legitimacy of every action the current court takes."
In an interview with the Nation, Warren argued that if the Supreme Court is not expanded, it only "emboldens people like McConnell to do even worse."
"Mitch McConnell should not be allowed to steal one seat, and then force through another, so that he created a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court," Warren said. "That just emboldens people like McConnell to do even worse. To do even more damage."
"Inaction will not restore the court to its badly needed credibility. It will take change," she added. "That’s why we need to appoint more justices.
Warren announced she would be a cosponsor of the Judiciary Act of 2021, which would "restore balance, integrity, and independence to the extremist Court that has been hijacked, politicized, and delegitimized by Republicans."
Warren supports the court-packing bill that Democrats introduced in April that would add four seats to the Supreme Court. Warren would be only the third Senator to back the bill – joining Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).
SCOTUS Justice Breyer warns fellow liberals against packing the court: 'What goes around comes around'
Liberals have been crying for Congress to pack the Supreme Court — meaning expanding the size of the court and filling the newly created vacancies with left-wingers — for some time. And the demands have grown more shrill over the last year-plus.
But one prominent liberal with a vested interest in the topic issued a warning: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told National Public Radio this week that liberals wanting to remake the high court to need to understand that "what goes around comes around."
What's all this?
Throughout the 2020 elections, liberal Democrats elevated their push to pack the court after the Senate narrowly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, then-President Donald Trump's nominee to replace leftist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The battle over Barrett's nomination was exceptionally bitter for the left, not only because she was replacing the "notorious RBG," but also because Trump had successfully nominated two other justices to the Supreme Court — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — in just his first term.
Following what many observers called a "conservative shift" on the high court thanks to Trump's nominations, the left attempted to make court-packing a campaign issue — though they could not get their nominee, Joe Biden, to buy in. He refused to say during the campaign whether he'd pack the court, though he did promise progressives that he would create a commission to study the idea — a promise he came through on in April.
And the court-packing cause got a major bump this month when the Supreme Court refused to knock down Texas' new law barring abortions after six weeks' gestation.
But not all liberals are on board with court-packing. Ginsburg, herself, famously warned against such a move.
Now, Justice Breyer is sounding alarm bells against packing the judiciary.
In an interview with NPR's Nina Totenberg this week to discuss his new book, "The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics," the justice told those who want to remake the court to be careful what they wish for.
Totenberg took on Breyer about his take that "people respect the court even when they disagree with it because the public at large has come to understand and respect the law," that "if we fiddle with the court's structure ... we will be frittering away all of the long-won respect the court has earned," and that "people will no longer respect the court's decisions and they would abide by decisions that they think are just delivered by a bunch of pols."
"I've learned over time," Breyer responded, "that it's very, very difficult to get people who think that some court decision is totally wrong to think that I should follow it nonetheless."
He said that the person who helped him learn that lesson was former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who, though he disagreed adamantly with the Bush v. Gore ruling that made George W. Bush president in 2000, noted that, as Breyer characterized it, "the most remarkable thing about this case is something that's rarely remarked, even though it affected a lot of people, and probably half the country didn't like it at all ... people followed it, and they didn't throw brickbats at each other and they didn't shoot each other and they didn't have riots."
It has taken the U.S. 200 years to get to that point, Breyer said, so he cautioned those who would call for a remaking of the court to "take all this into account, my friends."
"Of course the court has made some terrible decisions," he continued.
"But be careful," he said, because it has taken a long time to get to the place where people will follow the court's rulings.
Totenberg responded to Breyer by suggesting that Reid's stance is outdated — as exemplified, she said, by the Jan. 6 riots — and that they don't have "faith in institutions" any longer, which would allegedly justify liberals' attempts to revamp the court.
Breyer responded, "What goes around comes around. If the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can do it."
"Beware," the justice added. "Be careful."
Breyer Warns Against Remaking The Court: 'What Goes Around Comes Around' | NPR www.youtube.com
Ocasio-Cortez lashes out at Democrat Joe Manchin for rebuking 'crazy socialist agenda' with snarky photo of her glaring at him
Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York continued to fuel the infighting between Democrats over their failures in the 2020 election after a moderate Democrat senator rejected claims that the party has a "crazy socialist agenda."
The feud between progressive far-left Democrats and more centrist establishment Democrats erupted again when Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia denied the extremism attributed to the party by the GOP.
"Defund the police? Defund, my butt," tweeted Manchin.
"I'm a proud West Virginia Democrat," he added. "We are the party of working men and women. We want to protect Americans' jobs & healthcare. We do not have some crazy socialist agenda, and we do not believe in defunding the police."
Ocasio-Cortez offered her criticism in the form of a snarky image in a tweet.
https://t.co/4D4LVOyYhc https://t.co/MwNIc41Szj— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)1605209070.0
Manchin said that he would not support any Democratic effort to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices or end the legislative filibuster, two tactics that many on the left were advocating to punch Republicans.
"I really think that when you break the filibuster, you break the Senate, and I'm not going to be part of breaking the Senate, I can tell you that," said Manchin. "The Senate is a pretty special place because the Founding Fathers intended it to be that way. But they also intended us to work in a bipartisan way and to where the minority always had input. You break the rules of the filibuster, the minority has nothing. There's no purpose whatsoever. You're no different than a glorified House."
He also took issue with the "Defund the Police" police that was popularized by the Black Lives Matter movement.
"Defund, my butt!" he reportedly exclaimed.
"What we should be doing is funding more money to the police, educating, and protecting them better. Here's where they take a team education, so they know where the social changes are happening in the neighborhoods. That's what we should be doing with police," he explained.
Ocasio-Cortez appeared to be defensive of "crazy socialist policies" that Manchin rejected.
Here's more about Manchin defying Democrats:
Joe Manchin commits to breaking with Democrats over key progressive issueswww.youtube.com
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