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It's Not 'Court Packing.' Don't Be A Moron and Call It That.
by Josh Marshall
I wrote this tweet because I thought I would become apoplectic when I saw that some Democrats were referring to expanding the Supreme Court as “court packing” or tacitly accepting the use of the phrase when asked about it by reporters. Any Democrat who uses this phrase should be, metaphorically at least, hit over the head with a stick.
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The conservative movement has worked consistently and concertedly for roughly five decades to pack the federal judiciary with conservative ideologues. This is almost wholly novel in all of American history. Conservatives argue that they began this effort simply to undo the liberal dominance of the federal judiciary. But to the limited extent this was true in mid-20th century America, it was the product of a far more organic process. There was never a liberal equivalent of the Long March of planning, recruiting, funding and singular focus on taking over the third branch of government.
But the story takes a new turn in the first decade of the 21st century. Republicans have become increasingly pessimistic about their ability to win majority elections and have looked to the Court’s to lock in present political power for the future.
In this sense, Republican court packing is of a piece with the anti-majoritarian turn of the party as a whole – the increasing focus on voter suppression, aggressive and baroque legislative redistricting, the valorization of the electoral college and the unequal apportionment of the federal senate. These gambits may outrage you. But their most telling message is that they come from a party with little confidence in its ability to win majority elections. Indeed, almost the entirety of Republican politics today is based on the assumption that winning majority elections is hard and will only get harder. Extraordinary measures to limit voting or the impact of voting is one countermeasure and the other is taking hold of the federal judiciary to lock in political power now as a hedge against this unwelcome future.
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People can call things anything they want. Partisans will use phrases to advance their partisan interests. It is comically inept to use the phrasing your opponents adopt in the hopes of knee-capping you. “Court packing” on its face means an illegitimate action. It means acting to secure favorable judicial decisions by political means. But this is not what’s happening. The point of expanding the Court – in addition to being a good idea in general – is simply to get the Court out of the business of overruling majority legislation for corrupt partisan purposes, a power they have acquired through a perversion and abuse of the constitutional process.
We have gotten to this point by Republicans using every political power that is not expressly illegal to maximize their drive to dominate the courts to retain power while losing elections. That illegitimate gain can only continue if Democrats refuse to use legitimate and expressly constitutional means to undo the damage. Not doing so is not only political folly it is a danger to the constitutional order inasmuch as it encourages more Republican abuses.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/its-not-court-packing-dont-be-a-moron-and-call-it-that
I wrote this tweet because I thought I would become apoplectic when I saw that some Democrats were referring to expanding the Supreme Court as “court packing” or tacitly accepting the use of the phrase when asked about it by reporters. Any Democrat who uses this phrase should be, metaphorically at least, hit over the head with a stick.
---
The conservative movement has worked consistently and concertedly for roughly five decades to pack the federal judiciary with conservative ideologues. This is almost wholly novel in all of American history. Conservatives argue that they began this effort simply to undo the liberal dominance of the federal judiciary. But to the limited extent this was true in mid-20th century America, it was the product of a far more organic process. There was never a liberal equivalent of the Long March of planning, recruiting, funding and singular focus on taking over the third branch of government.
But the story takes a new turn in the first decade of the 21st century. Republicans have become increasingly pessimistic about their ability to win majority elections and have looked to the Court’s to lock in present political power for the future.
In this sense, Republican court packing is of a piece with the anti-majoritarian turn of the party as a whole – the increasing focus on voter suppression, aggressive and baroque legislative redistricting, the valorization of the electoral college and the unequal apportionment of the federal senate. These gambits may outrage you. But their most telling message is that they come from a party with little confidence in its ability to win majority elections. Indeed, almost the entirety of Republican politics today is based on the assumption that winning majority elections is hard and will only get harder. Extraordinary measures to limit voting or the impact of voting is one countermeasure and the other is taking hold of the federal judiciary to lock in political power now as a hedge against this unwelcome future.
---
People can call things anything they want. Partisans will use phrases to advance their partisan interests. It is comically inept to use the phrasing your opponents adopt in the hopes of knee-capping you. “Court packing” on its face means an illegitimate action. It means acting to secure favorable judicial decisions by political means. But this is not what’s happening. The point of expanding the Court – in addition to being a good idea in general – is simply to get the Court out of the business of overruling majority legislation for corrupt partisan purposes, a power they have acquired through a perversion and abuse of the constitutional process.
We have gotten to this point by Republicans using every political power that is not expressly illegal to maximize their drive to dominate the courts to retain power while losing elections. That illegitimate gain can only continue if Democrats refuse to use legitimate and expressly constitutional means to undo the damage. Not doing so is not only political folly it is a danger to the constitutional order inasmuch as it encourages more Republican abuses.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/its-not-court-packing-dont-be-a-moron-and-call-it-that
I had trouble deciding which paragraphs to include and which to leave out. As usual, Josh Marshall hits the nail on the head on this topic. Please take the time to read the whole article.
Democrats must use every method available to them to bring our country back from the brink of fascism. I truly hope our leaders are listening.
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