Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is on the warpath against the Supreme Court once again. As one of the Democrats’ leading advocates for altering the makeup of the court to advance a progressive agenda, she once again called for various “reforms.”
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Warren accused the Supreme Court of “actively undermining” democracy. The lawmaker told host Jake Tapper and his viewers that she and some of her colleagues are seeking to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices while adding more judges to the court.
“Here’s a man who has been a transformative president. He’s gotten an enormous amount done, and yet, he has stepped away and he has passed the torch to Kamala Harris,” Warren said, referring to Biden. “Why has he done that? He’s done it as an act of patriotism for our nation. And he is saying we not only have to have a president who is here for the nation and who will heal us and bring us together, we also have to change our Supreme Court.”
“Because right now, we have a Supreme Court that has basically jumped the guard rails and is out there giving power to the president, saying that the President can commit any act that the President wants, saying that Congress cannot authorize agencies to act. So we’ve got a Supreme Court that is actively undermining our democracy,” she continued.
Democrats have been calling for “reforms” to the Supreme Court ever since it began ruling against their agenda. Most notably, the rulings overturning Roe v. Wade, striking down unconstitutional gun control laws, and, most recently, granting former President Donald Trump a level of immunity, have raised hackles on the left.
To be clear, Warren and her colleagues are not motivated to alter the makeup of the Supreme Court out of a sense of protecting “democracy.” Instead, they are simply pushing this initiative because they want a high court that will do their bidding.
Vice President Kamala Harris has also expressed support for making these changes to the court in the past.
During a forum in New Hampshire in May of 2020, a moderator asked Harris how she felt about adding as many as four seats to the Supreme Court. The then-senator from California said she was “open to this conversation.”
Harris also signaled a desire to place restrictions on the amount of justices a president can appoint to the Court, and to end lifetime appointments for justices. These reforms and others would restore the Court’s legitimacy in the eyes of voters, she suggested.
Two months prior to that forum, Harris similarly indicated that she was willing to consider increasing the size of the Court.
“We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the Supreme Court … we have to take this challenge head on, and everything is on the table to do that,” she said.
Democrats, by and large, were not pushing for term limits on Supreme Court justices or to pack the court when they had a majority. The calls intensified after Trump was able to appoint conservative judges who ruled against Democrats’ initiatives, making it clear this is all about politics.
What these people aren’t considering is the inevitability that if they expand the court for a political advantage, it will lead to a tit-for-tat escalation where future administrations do the same. While Democrats would probably try to implement safeguards to prevent Republicans from following suit when they gain control of the legislature and White House, these could still be overcome, creating an absurd and dangerous situation.