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Following a speech to the nation last week explaining his reasons for withdrawing from the presidential race, President Joe Biden reiterated his proposal to “reform” the US Supreme Court.
Americans need to understand that a movement to fundamentally change the Supreme Court is on the horizon. Current proposals, such as term limits for the longest serving justices and mandatory ethics rules, threaten the Constitution and the separation of powers, but the far-left wants to add more liberal justices to the Supreme Court. That’s exactly what will happen if the Democratic presidential candidate wins. All it takes is a majority vote and the president’s signature.
Indeed, Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive nominee who has Biden’s full endorsement, has already voiced her support, saying she is “fully in favor” of adding to the court.
Turning the Supreme Court into another partisan institution would destroy judicial independence and threaten the civil liberties of all Americans. Regarding such an idea, then-Senator Biden once said that changing the structure of the Supreme Court was a “foolish idea” and that it “calls into question the independence of the Supreme Court.” He was right. The last thing we need in this country right now is a Supreme Court coup that threatens our democratic republic.
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The left continues to try to take over the Supreme Court because they are angry that recent decisions did not go their way. In reality, the actual numbers do not support the hysterical claims of a “partisan Supreme Court.” In the most recent session, 45.8% of cases were unanimous. Of the 22 cases decided 6-3, only 11 were ideologically aligned. The left is just angry about the few cases they don’t agree with, and they are willing to subvert the Supreme Court and the rule of law to get their way.
The Supreme Court is the only branch of government that stands in the way of one-party rule.
Biden, Harris call for Supreme Court term limits, code of conduct, and limits on presidential immunity
If the court expansion plan somehow succeeds, our current hyper-partisan political culture will look like a golden age of political cooperation. Civil liberties, especially religious liberty, in all 50 states will be recognized only at the convenience of the radical left. The First Amendment rights of political opponents will be trampled.
In reality, “court reform” is nothing more than a desperate attack to undermine the legitimacy of the Constitution and a Supreme Court dominated by fundamentalist judges. If this coup succeeds, the judiciary will become nothing more than a political tool of those in power and the rule of law will come to an end.
“Ethics reform” is an attempt to violate basic principles of the Constitution and separation of powers and give opponents of the judiciary the power to punish judges whose decisions go against left-wing agendas by subjecting them to investigations and trumped-up scandals. This “term limits” proposal requires a Constitutional amendment and is deliberately designed as a partisan move to purge the Supreme Court of conservative judges, first by immediately removing the longest-serving and most conservative judges, including literalists Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
President Biden said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling on presidential immunity “undermines the rule of law in this country.” (Getty Images)
Congress has no power to interfere with the actions of the judiciary. Our country is stronger with three separate branches of power. To protect religious freedom and all the freedoms we cherish, judges must be able to rule without fear of partisan retaliation from the executive or legislative branches. Biden-Harris’ “court reform” would destroy that.
Thankfully, the majority of Americans, who are tired of the aggressive, woke Left, are rejecting all of these dangerous attacks on our Supreme Court and the rule of law.
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The 2023 poll found that 91% of Americans believe that an independent judiciary is critical to protecting civil liberties, 72% believe that politicizing the Supreme Court threatens judicial independence, and 68% oppose expanding the court.
James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 48 that “the most difficult task is to provide for each man some practical security.” [branch of government]He feared that legislative power had a tendency to draw everything into its “impulsive whirlpool,” and he saw the Supreme Court as an important check on legislative power: it was the Court that protected God-given civil rights from legislative excesses.
Americans hope that politicians will not tamper with the 150-year-old tradition of having nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Freedom-valuing Americans need to speak out and oppose this attempted coup.
Kelly Shackelford is president, CEO and chief counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit law firm dedicated to protecting religious freedom for all.
