The growing threat behind Biden's Supreme Court proposal

Following his address last week to the nation explaining why he is dropping out of the race, President Joe Biden doubled down on his proposal to "reform" the Supreme Court of the United States.

Americans need to understand that the campaign to radically change the Court is coming.  While current proposals like term limits for the longest-serving justices and an imposed code of ethics threaten the Constitution and the separation of powers, the far left is demanding that Court be packed with additional liberal justices.  Whoever the Democrat nominee for President is, if they win, that is exactly what will happen, and it only takes a majority vote and the signature of the President.

In fact, presumptive nominee VP Kamala Harris, who received Biden’s wholehearted endorsement, has already expressed support, stating she was "absolutely open" to court packing.

Transforming the Supreme Court into another partisan body would destroy the independence of the judiciary and threaten the civil liberties of all Americans.  Concerning such an idea, then-Senator Biden once said that changing the structure of the Court was "a bonehead idea" that would "put in question … the independence of the … Supreme Court."  He was right.  The last thing we need in this country right now is a Supreme Court coup that would threaten our democratic republic.

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The left continues these moves to take over the Supreme Court because they are angry about recent decisions that have not gone their way.  In truth, the actual numbers do not back up the hysterical claims of a "partisan Court."  In the recent term, 45.8 percent of cases were unanimous.  Of the 22 cases decided 6-3, only 11 were along ideological lines. The left is just upset by a small number of cases with which they disagree, and they are willing to take down the Court and the rule of law to get their way.

The Supreme Court is the only branch of government that stands in the way of one-party rule. 

BIDEN, HARRIS CALL FOR SUPREME COURT TERM LIMITS, CODE OF CONDUCT, LIMITS ON PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY

If the Court packers somehow succeed, the current hyper-partisan political culture will seem like some golden age of political comity.  Civil liberties, particularly religious liberty, across the fifty states will be granted only at the pleasure of the radical left.  First Amendment rights for political opponents will be trampled. 

In truth, "court reform" is nothing more than a desperate attack to subvert the legitimacy of the Supreme Court because it contains a majority of justices committed to the Constitution and originalism. If this coup succeeds, the rule of law will be over as the judiciary will become little more than a political tool of whomever holds power.

Violating the Constitution and fundamental principles of separation of powers, "ethics reform" is an attempt to give enemies of the judiciary the power to punish justices who rule against the left’s agenda by subjecting them to investigations and fabricated scandals.  The "term limits" proposal would require an amendment to the Constitution and is intentionally designed as a partisan move to purge the Supreme Court of conservative justices, immediately removing the longest-serving and most conservative justices first, including textualists Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

President Biden said the Supreme Court's Monday ruling on presidential immunity "undermines the rule of law of this nation." (Getty Images)

Congress has no business interfering with the actions of the judiciary.  It is the separation of powers into three district branches of government that makes our nation strong. To protect religious freedom and all of our cherished liberties, judges must be able to make decisions without fear of partisan retribution from the executive or legislative branches.  Biden and Harris’ "court reform" would destroy that.

Thankfully, the reasonable majority of Americans fed up with the aggressive, woke left reject all of these dangerous attacks on our Court and the rule of law.

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Polling from 2023 reveals that 91% of Americans believe an independent judiciary is a crucial safeguard of our civil liberties, 72% of Americans believe the politicization of the Supreme Court threatens judicial independence, and 68% oppose court-packing.

In Federalist 48, James Madison said that the "most difficult task is to provide some practical security for each [branch of government], against the invasion of the others."  He recognized the Court as a critical check on legislative power, which he feared would tend to draw all into its "impetuous vortex."  It is the Court that defends our God-given civil rights from legislative overreach.  

Americans want its politicians to keep their political hands off the 150 years of tradition of nine Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States. Americans who care about their freedoms need to speak up and stand up against this attempted coup.

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Kelly Shackelford is President, CEO, and Chief Counsel for First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all.