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Ever since the days of FDR (when over the course of his presidential terms, he appointed EIGHT justices), the Supreme Court has run to the left.
This made the Democrats and the hard left happy, because they liked to use the judicial branch of the government as their backstop. The Supreme Court got rid of school prayer. The Supreme Court found a “constitutional right” to abortion. The Supreme Court ruled the Obamacare penalty was a tax, not a fine. The Supreme Court found a “constitutional right” to same-sex marriage. So long as the Court ruled the way that Democrats wanted, they loved it!
And then 2016 happened. The Democrats were so utterly convinced that Hillary Clinton was going to win, that there was no pressure campaign on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down, despite her cancer diagnosis. Nope, we had true believers out there offering their organs to Ginsburg, hoping that she could just live through four years of a Trump administration. Well, she didn’t. One of Donald Trump’s greatest presidential legacies will be the three justices that he was able to appoint to the Supreme Court. Trump’s intestinal fortitude, combined with Senator Mitch McConnell’s skill in the Senate, cleared the way to appoint Neil Gorsuch (as McConnell followed the logical conclusion of Harry Reid’s use of the “nuclear option“), Brett Kavanaugh (as Trump refused to back down when the vicious smear campaign against Kavanaugh began), and Amy Coney Barrett (as McConnell orchestrated the timing of the Senate Judiciary committee hearings after Ginsburg’s death to get Barrett on the court before the November 2020 election).
Well, Democrats have learned what happens when the Supreme Court is no longer just rubber-stamping every single leftist issue with the blessing of nine people in robes with a gavel. They’ve also learned that they don’t like it very much when the shoe is on the other foot. That’s why, after years of deifing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there is now outright blame placed on her for NOT retiring. It’s also why Justice Stephen Breyer, a reliable leftist, was forced into retirement after a leak appeared saying that he was planning on retiring from the Court, clearing the way for not-a-biologist Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
But getting Breyer off the Court and replacing him with the much younger Jackson is not enough for Democrats. And they have come to the realization that Biden’s court packing scheme is a non-starter.
So now, House Democrats have a brand new idea! TERM LIMITS.
A group of House Democrats introduced a bill on Tuesday to enact term limits for Supreme Court justices, arguing that the move will “restore legitimacy and independence to the nation’s highest court.”
The legislation, titled the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act, would authorize the president to nominate Supreme Court justices every two years — in the first and third years after a presidential election. The justices who have been on the court the longest will be moved to senior status first.”
If confirmed by the Senate, those individuals would serve a maximum 18 years on the bench. After their tenures are complete, the Supreme Court justices would retire from active service and assume senior status.”
And yes, all the usual suspects are involved.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) introduced the bill along with Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) as co-sponsors.”
In a statement Johnson said the bench “is increasingly facing a legitimacy crisis.”
“Five of the six conservative justices on the bench were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote, and they are now racing to impose their out-of-touch agenda on the American people, who do not want it,” he said, referring to justices nominated by former Presidents Trump and George W. Bush.”
“Term limits are a necessary step toward restoring balance to this radical, unrestrained majority on the court,” he added.”
They’re not even trying to hide what sore losers they are. This is entirely about watching case after case after case be ruled on in a strict constitutional manner, not just creating “rights” out of thin air because the left WANTS the Constitution to be a “living” document that “evolves” into what they want it to mean. There’s no “legitimacy crisis” – there’s just sour grapes.
Now, Constitutionally speaking, legal scholars believe that if you want term limits for Supreme Court justices, then a constitutional amendment is required. What the House Democrats are currently doing, plus Sheldon Whitehouse in the Senate (who introduced an identical bill there), is not a constitutional amendment. It’s a Democrat temper tantrum. And haven’t the Democrats learned by now that every time they mess with the confirmation process of justices to the Court, it comes back to bite them on the ass?
Tell you what, Democrats. I’m not opposed to term limits for government employees. Let’s pass term limits for Congress first, and then we can talk about the Supreme Court.
Hey, where are all the Democrats going?
Featured image: MarkThomas via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license
presidents who lost the popular vote
Ummmm, *looks at Constitution* what does that have to do with anything? (Answer: NADA.)
to impose their out-of-touch agenda
Also… totally irrelevant and untrue. They are re-imposing the CONSTITUTION on you, Mr Guam-Will-Tip-Over. And it will be much nicer having them reimpose it, rather than me. Because I would tend more toward the Gardener of the Tree of Liberty method.
a “living” document that “evolves”
This is part of the Progressive religion. Everything ‘evolves’. So we can just get on with adapting and not fuss around with the old ways….
if you want term limits for Supreme Court justices, then a constitutional amendment is required
Ah, you see, that’s where the “senior status” comes in. They’re not throwing them off the bench, they’re just ‘moving’ them to “senior status”. They’re realllly still judges, they just don’t sit for cases and stuff. They will give them the honor of announcing all the progressive diktats and searching for leakers and such. But they’ll still be ‘serving’ so the law won’t be in violation of the Constitution.
Yeah, riiiiiight. Pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.
I don’t agree with term limits for SCOTUS justices, but I believe I recall that this was once a Republican idea when things weren’t going the way THEY wanted.
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