We’ve seen over the past few years Democrats attacking the Supreme Court because they’re unhappy they don’t control it. They’ve pushed ways to gain more control over it, such as packing the Court. They’re unhappy they don’t have oversight over the highest court in the land, but they specifically were not given that because the Constitution didn’t want the Court to be subject to the whims of politics.
Democrats have been threatening the Court for years to force them to comply with what the Democrats want rather than adhere to the Constitution.
Senator Schumer started these threats years ago:
“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 you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”pic.twitter.com/MTzFviUZZG
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) July 20, 2023
Such things are a threat to the independence of the judiciary, as well as a threat to the Constitution.
Republican senators rang the alarm bells about a new effort to control the Court by trying to pass a bill supposedly about “ethics.”
In a committee meeting Thursday, the senators debated a proposal – Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act – that its Democrat sponsors argued would impose a code of conduct for justices on the court. Republicans argued that there are pre-existing ethics rules in places for the justices, governed by a separate body, which just recently updated its rules for disclosures.
Here’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) — the guy who likes to frequent beach clubs that lack diversity — seeming to say the quiet part out loud about the point behind this ethics effort. Watch as he talks about packing the Court.
Senator Whitehouse says the quiet part out loud.
The goal of the ongoing harassment and intimidation campaign against the justices is ultimately to pack the Court. pic.twitter.com/7cZuHsRo2U
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) July 20, 2023
The bill passed out of Committee on a party-line vote. But not before Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) rang the alarm bells about it and ripped it to shreds. Kennedy termed it a “court-killing machine,” calling it both “dangerous” and “unserious.”
Sen. John Kennedy BLASTS Judiciary Democrats’ “ethics legislation”: “It would allow any jackaloon out there in America in a tinfoil hat–whose own dog thinks he is an utter nutter–to file a motion to recuse a [SCOTUS justice]. Now, what could possibly go wrong?” pic.twitter.com/8snENVk8IL
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 20, 2023
“You don’t have to be ‘Oliver Wendell Scalia’ to figure out that this legislation is meant to be a court-killing machine,” he charged.
“It would allow any jackaloon out there in America in a tinfoil hat, whose own dog thinks he’s an utter nutter, to file a motion to recuse a United States Supreme Court Justice.”
“Now, what could possibly go wrong? And my Democratic colleagues know that,” he said.
Kennedy said the bill is “dangerous, but it’s unserious.”
“And I think my colleagues, some of them know that, and they’re trying to make a point,” he said.
Kennedy put them to the test as well — asking them to vote solely on a bill condemning racist comments about Justice Clarence Thomas. They wanted to change it and add other people. He said no, he didn’t want to “water it down, bubble wrap it or sugar coat it. He wanted it about Thomas and only Thomas because of the attack on him now. He said he would support other amendments that refer to the other justices. But he wanted support from the Democrats to have the Senate say “as big as Dallas” that they condemn racist attacks on Thomas.
You either condemn the racist attacks on Justice Clarence Thomas, or you don’t.
After a long discussion today, my Democrat colleagues on the Judiciary Committee finally agreed to condemn the disgusting racism that many have aimed at Justice Thomas. pic.twitter.com/tBptrybb0q
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) July 20, 2023
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) pointed to the disgusting comments by Michigan Attorney General Keith Ellison (a Democrat) likening Thomas to the house slave in “Django Unchained.” He asked if any other justice had been subject to such attacks. Kennedy said no, and it would be unconscionable not to condemn this.
Yet, Whitehouse encouraged the Democrats to vote against this.
Kennedy said, “How can you not condemn a statement calling Justice Thomas a house slave? Come on, folks, that’s all this amendment does!” He ripped them a new one, saying, “Either you condemn it or you don’t.” But the Democrats wouldn’t do it. The excuse given, Cruz said, was that the Biden administration should enforce the law, and he didn’t see how that was an issue.
Imagine the Democratic senators talking about “ethics” — the folks who often seem to have none, whose only overriding principle is power — when they show just how lacking they are and when the Supreme Court is far more honest and ethical an institution than they are.
The measure now advances the full Senate chamber.
But Senator Kennedy said the bill wasn’t going to get the votes on the Senate floor and would be “as dead as a fried chicken.”
