Trump tweeted something yesterday that should at least cause citizens to raise an eyebrow and pause. He tweeted, ““The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court. If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and … Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!”
Once again, Trump believes that the Rule of Law only applies when it agrees with his view of the world. There have been previous presidents who were not happy with rulings coming down from the Supreme Court, but they usually state that they are disappointed but respect the decision, i.e. deferring to and accepting the Rule of Law in this country.
Trump, on the other hand, simply states that we need ‘NEW JUSTICES’. This is the part that should concern everyone. I would venture a guess that most people in this country are not aware that the number of Supreme Court justices is not mandated by the Constitution and has actually changed at several times during the course of this nation’s history. The number of nine Supreme Court justices was established by Congress in 1869 and has not changed since then.
However, Congress does have the power to change that number. Fortunately, I believe it requires both house of Congress to sign off on that legislation so it would be difficult to do with the House under Democratic control and the Senate under Republican control. However, I would not be surprised if Trump, in cahoots Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, wouldn’t try to use some arcane rules to try to circumvent the ‘normal’ process.
The two most discussed cases of ‘court packing’ were done during the administrations of Andrew Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt. The number of justices was reduced during Johnson’s administration to thwart his ability to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would have supported Johnson’s post-civil war agenda. Franklin Roosevelt tried to increase the number of justices because he got frustrated that the Supreme Court kept ruling against parts of his ‘New Deal’. He wanted to increase the number of justices so he could appoint justices that would support his agenda. Fortunately, there was sufficient bi-partisan support to kill this effort to pack the court to support a partisan agenda.
I’m just finishing up Madeleine Albright’s book, Fascism: A Warning, and in it, she profiles a number of modern day autocrats – Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Erdogan (Turkey), Putin (Russia) to name a few – and, universally, every single one of these people packed the courts AFTER they were ‘elected’ in such a way that the courts essentially became rubber stamps for their expanding political power. On the surface it looks like democracy, but in reality, the judicial system becomes a farce. It is a standard play from the ‘autocrat handbook’!
Think it can’t happen here? Mitch McConnell has been busy as a little beaver packing the lower courts with conservative appointees. He is ramming these appointees through the senate at an unprecedented clip. And, some of these appointees have been deemed ‘unqualified’ by the American Bar Association. However, once again the most important qualification for anyone serving in this administration is to be 1) an avowed conservative and 2) loyal to Trump.
The Supreme Court just handed down two opinions that angered Trump – one on DACA and the other on LGBTQ rights. There are a couple more big cases slated to be decided including one involving Trump’s tax returns. If the Supreme Court rules against Trump on that case, I have no doubt that Trump, his toady, William Barr, and Mitch McConnell will begin looking at every possible way to, in Trump’s words, get “NEW JUSTICES”.
And, speaking of the judicial system becoming a farce, there was another attempted ‘Friday night massacre’ yesterday when Bill Barr tried to fire Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Berman refused to step down and this whole issue is no doubt headed to court.
Berman’s ‘sin’s’: he was involved in cases against Michael Cohen, Rudy Guiliani and two of his associates, and Deutsche Bank (the only bank that would touch Trump after his bankruptcies and from whom, Trump documents have been subpoenaed). I talked about transparency yesterday and this is just another example of an attempt to thwart any and all oversight and investigations into Trump or anyone close to him. This should send chills up the spine of every American who believes in the Rule of Law and a fair and impartial judiciary.
I highly recommend Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter that addresses this subject today.