The attacks on the United States Supreme Court by Democrats are increasingly dangerous.
The high court has issued rulings that, depending on the particular case, have disappointed both conservatives and liberals. Decisions on immigration and laws affecting elections have been criticized by Republicans. Those impacting college admissions, free speech, and loan forgiveness have disappointed Democrats.
But the reactions of the two parties have differed sharply. The GOP merely discussed why it thought the opinions they dissented from were wrong. Democrats have attacked the institution of the Supreme Court directly.
Democrat strategies have included attempts to “pack” the Court, limiting the terms of justices, and even threaten the safety of conservative judges.
As noted by Judge John Wilson (ret.), citing Reuters “A group of liberal Democratic lawmakers…proposed expanding the U.S. Supreme Court by four justices, aiming to end its conservative majority…Senator Ed Markey and House of Representatives members Jerrold Nadler, Hank Johnson and Mondaire Jones introduced legislation in both chambers that would expand the number of justices to 13 from the current nine.” This legislation comes in the wake of a Commission formed by yet another Executive Order from the desk of Joe Biden, tasked with the “study (of) potential U.S. Supreme Court changes including expanding the number of justices beyond the current nine.”
Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D-NY) directly threatened individual justices he disagreed with, stating “I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price…You won’t know what hit if you go forward with these awful decisions.” The reaction to the threat was so furious he was forced to apologize.
The tactics of some Democrats extend beyond mere words. They have included delaying necessary measures to protect conservative judges from violent protests.
In a 2022 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Senator Chuck Grassley noted
“Since the unprecedented leak of a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, I’ve watched this administration’s refusal to condemn the efforts to threaten and intimidate the justices with grave disappointment. I’ve waited for this administration to commit to protecting the justices from violence and to denounce the effort by far-left activists to undermine the independence of the judiciary and influence judges through protests at their homes. As the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have serious concerns about the safety of the justices and the attacks on our judiciary. I urge you to publicly commit to protecting the justices, and to condemn and prosecute anyone seeking to threaten and intimidate the Court into changing its decision.
“Protesting and rioting near the Supreme Court or the justices’ homes to influence their decisions is illegal. 18 U.S.C. § 1507 states that anyone who “pickets or parades in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or in or near a building or residence occupied or used by [a] judge” “with the intent of influencing any judge . . . in the discharge of his duty . . . shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”
“It is beyond dispute that far-left activists have launched a concerted and coordinated effort to intimidate the Court into changing the draft Dobbs decision…”
In response to Court verdicts on free speech, racial discrimination, and student loans, President Biden choose, instead of just expressing disagreement with the opinions, to proclaim that the current Supreme Court was “Not normal” and that it’s “Value system was different.”
These political, ideological, and indeed physical assaults on the Supreme Court are a significant threat to the entire Constitutional framework of American government. It is massively irresponsible to continue on this dangerous path.
Photo: U.S. Supreme Court