OPINION:
Apparently not satisfied with the efficacy of their norm-shattering use of government power through the courts to take down their campaign opponent before the election, we are again witnessing a full onslaught by the Democrats against the Supreme Court.
On Monday, President Biden proposed radical “reforms” — quickly endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — that would achieve the end of court packing, simply by other means.
The damage to America’s constitutional system, the greatest the world has ever known, would be irreparable.
Democrats’ latest escalation against the high court follows Sen. Charles E. Schumer’s 2020 threat that justices would “pay the price” for certain rulings, which precipitated unprecedented intimidation at the justices’ homes, including an assassination attempt in 2022. Earlier this month, Mr. Biden openly threatened the court over disagreements with its decisions.
The first Biden-Harris proposal is Supreme Court term limits. This would upend the independence of the court established by the framers. Our founders deliberately shielded justices from the external influences of election, removal or post-judicial career prospects. They thought judges should be free to focus only on the law without fear of consequence or retribution.
This is court packing by replacement — the first three justices on the chopping block are naturally Republican appointees.
Ignoring the court’s unanimously adopted code of conduct, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris’ second proposal is a “binding code of conduct” system under which a third-party panel could force justices off cases if the panel deems it necessary.
This outside entity would use subjective assessments to determine whether justices or their families have conflicts of interest. These assessments would be politicized immediately.
This isn’t theoretical. Just this year, House and Senate Democrats demanded that Justice Samuel A. Alito be recused from cases because his wife flew a previously noncontroversial flag outside their home.
The flag in question was a patriotic flag emblazoned with the Revolutionary War slogan “Appeal to Heaven” that also flew outside San Francisco City Hall for 60 years until this past May, when someone presumably whispered to the mayor that it was a tool in the Alito recusal campaign.
The group appointed to decide which justices to disqualify in which cases would be inundated with similar fabricated pressure campaigns targeted at justices whose disqualification in key cases would temporarily tailor the court’s membership to the left’s agenda.
If the disqualification police failed to disqualify the right justices, Democrats would then cancel them too and push to replace them with another regime that would get the job done.
This proposal amounts to court-packing by elimination.
Aside from these proposals being unconstitutional, allowing another branch to force a change in the judicial branch’s membership to manipulate its rulings would destroy the court’s independence and the impartial rule of law.
So why are Democrats proposing to torch our constitutional system?
Setting aside the false pretense of misleading and debunked ethics allegations and made-up flag controversies, the real reason is that some of the judicial branch’s recent rulings don’t align with Democrats’ policy goals. Period.
If you can’t win the game, change the rules.
While the Biden-Harris announcement ironically claims that these proposals would “strengthen American democracy and protect the rule of law” — by upending our constitutional system of checks and balances — it reveals the Democrats’ true motive, noting that the court has recently ruled against Democrats.
Democrats now see the court as a less reliable source of progressive policy than before — because, under its current composition, the court is more focused on dispassionately interpreting the Constitution and laws. Therefore, Democrats are issuing the court an ultimatum: (1) Revert to left-wing activism, or (2) be replaced by justices who will.
If successful, this type of shakedown of the judicial branch by another branch of government would effectively leave our government with just two branches.
While Democrats huff and puff about preserving institutions, their proposals to twist the court toward Democrats’ partisan agenda are a flagrant attack on them.
In our intricate system of checks and balances, the three-legged stool will topple if Democrats succeed at sawing off one leg.
Only under the warped logic of progressive Democrats can you save our democratic institutions by destroying them.
• Bill Hagerty has served as the junior United States senator from Tennessee since 2021.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.