On the GOP side, we have an illegitimate president who nominated an illegitimate justice, which the GOP Senate—in power due to illegitimate attacks on voting rights—is going to confirm in the most illegitimate way possible.
On our side, however, all is not lost. We are organizing on a level I’ve never seen before in my lifetime. People are finally realizing that our civil rights, which Democrats fought to earn for over 50 years, are threatened, and they are pissed.
Does the GOP really think that we are going to just sit by and watch as our rights get gutted in a slew of 5-4 decisions with no consequence?
Yes, the GOP just killed the filibuster. That is freaking great! I hope they kill it for legislation as well. (I think that they will.) The Dems should have abolished it back in 2010 when we were trying to fix health care. This archaic tool has only ever been used by the GOP anyway. They used it to an unprecedented degree during Obama’s presidency. Those days are over.
Trump is at an historic low in his presidency, and he keeps going down. At this rate, I have little doubt that Dems will sweep the Senate and Presidency. We may even win the House in 2020. A lot of damage will have been done, but with a Democratic majority and no more procedural hindrances, we can finally rebuild our nation on the mandate the people tried to give us seven years ago.
Our first step should be restoring balance on the Supreme Court. I’m not just talking about getting progressive nominees through on a simple majority vote, I’m talking about taking back what the GOP stole:
We should add seats to the Court.
If I was a republican, I would advocate adding a bunch of justices for my party. However, I’m a Democrat who actually wants fair government. So what I am advocating is adding two Democratic picks to make up for the Court’s current stolen honor, and then adding four more Democratic picks and four more picks for the conservatives for a total count of 19. Hear me out:
First, this will not require a constitutional amendment. Congress determines the number of justices just by passing a law. Historically, the number of justices have varied from 7 to 10. The Constitution does not dictate how many justices the Court must have. The reason we have nine today is because of the Judiciary Act that passed almost 150 years ago. This doesn’t make sense:
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, has 29 judges. The D.C. Circuit has 11 judges. The republican’s favorite—the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals—currently has 17 judges. The circuit courts use judge “panels” with random assignments to ensure neutrality, with the added bonus that more cases can be heard. If the parties don’t like the result, they can seek an “en banc” rehearing with all of them. Having a large number will also ensure less ideological splits: courts with larger numbers have a lot less breaks along party lines. Rare would be the day you would see a 10-9 split. (BTW, under Roberts, we’ve had more 5-4 splits than in any other time in our history.)
This idea has a lot of merit in judicial circles: more judges mean more diversity, more diverse opinions, and more backgrounds. (Currently, all justices have gone to either Harvard or Yale.) More importantly, with more judges, you won’t have the extreme ideological tilt of the entire Court on the shoulder of one nominee—it will take several elections over time to establish, which is fair.
(There are plenty of other ways to fix the Court, but most would require a Constitutional Amendment. One of the best I’ve heard is limiting terms to one 18-year appointment.)
To save the Supreme Court, it has to be saved from the Senate itself. This means it can no longer be a tool of the GOP—or any party, for that matter. Ironically, the means and will to do the necessary fixes may have have been put in motion thanks to the GOP’s very own power-grab.