Moscow Mitch stood smugly in the Senate yesterday, patting himself and his Senate republicans on the back for their complete and utter destruction of the Senate as a deliberative body, and the Supreme Court as an unbiased arbiter of justice. They had just rammed through a hyper-partisan, extreme right-wing judge, Amy Barrett, to fill the notorious RBG’s seat. A seat that was still warm, a nomination that occurred before Justice Ginsberg was even in her grave. To quote Mitch;
“This is something to really be proud of and feel good about,” McConnell said of Barrett’s confirmation. “We made an important contribution to the future of this country. A lot of what we have done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. It won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”
Putting aside his arrogance and false ignorance, Mitch is wrong. There IS a lot we can do. In fact, we can undo EVERYTHING this corrupt republican Senate has done to our courts, and we can do it on day one, without the need for a single republican vote. The truth is, the republicans cannot stop us, as long as we win the Senate, keep the House, and retake the White House. A feat we are on track to accomplish in less than a week.
Correcting the Supreme Court requires nothing more than a bill to be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Biden, changing the number of Supreme Court Justices to 15, and then appointing the new 6 justices. In one fell swoop we can bitch slap the corrupt republican party, the Heritage Foundation, and the Federalist Society so far back into their racist and unAmerican past, they will NEVER again be able to force right-wing extremists, attempted rapists, or anyone else unqualified from taking over our courts. It’s not only just, not only morally imperative, not only the will of the MAJORITY of our great nation, it’s also the only political maneuver that the right will understand. Hold up a legal SC nomination, we’ll add more justices. Rush to hypocritically ignore your previous “reservations” about nominating a SC justice weeks before the election, we’ll add more. Imagine how fast Moscow Mitch will squeal like a stuck pig in false outrage when he finds out the majority of Americans will NOT see an extreme right-wing Supreme Court for more than two months, and then never again in his lifetime.
To be certain, there are other measures to reform our courts which need to be made — expanding the appellate court, placing the Supreme Court under the same ethics rules as every other court in our country, and making those rules enforceable.
We need to clip the Supreme Court as well, since they do not have the power of judicial review on our duly passed acts of Congress or of the President. It’s time to fix the error of Marbury vs. Madison, where a clerk gave the court powers it does not have. All that needed to correct this, is to declare the Supreme Court cannot rule anymore on these issues. A bill is not even needed, though you could add that into reform measures as well.
We are tired of watching this corrupt republican party consistently twist, flaunt and ignore our the laws, our Constitution, and our government. They do so to inflict wildly unpopular and self-serving sets of extreme, controlling and damaging positions, hate-filled, regressive positions that the American public has made clear they do not want and will not support. The republican party has become the party of the KKK, of Neo-Nazis, of white supremacists, of bigots, of the uber rich and the corporate excesses, and of the religiously intolerant.
It is time we flex our power, to correct the injustices in our communities and in our country. We MUST demand the Democratic Party, once in power, immediately expand and unpack the Supreme Court to 15 members. I urge readers to call their Democratic congressmen and women, to call their Democratic Senators, and to call President Biden, once in power, to unpack our courts. Do it daily, do it consistently, and do not let up. We have the majority, and we’ll have the power, it’s past time we use it.