Soapbox SuperChat
WASHINGTON, D.C. – All 53 of the Republican Senators sent a Letter to the Supreme Court on August 29, 2019 asking the Court not to be intimidated by the Democrats recent actions.
According to an article by Jerry Lambe for Law & Crime:
“All 53 Republican senators sent a letter to the Supreme Court on Thursday impelling the court not to be “cowed by the threats” in an amicus brief submitted by five Democratic Senators earlier in the month. The controversial brief implored the justices to drop a case pertaining to a New York City gun law or risk appearing politically influenced.
In their letter to the high court, Republicans said the amicus brief in questioned represented an existential threat to the independence of the Supreme Court.
“Our colleagues did more than raise legal arguments in favor of mootness. They openly threatened this Court with political retribution if it failed to dismiss the petition as moot,” they wrote. “The implication is plain as day: Dismiss this case, or we’ll pack the Court.”
“But judicial independence is under assault. Democrats in Congress, and on the presidential campaign trail, have peddled plans to pack this Court with more justices in order to further their radical legislative agenda,” their letter said. “It’s one thing for politicians to peddle these ideas in Tweets or on the stump. But the Democrats’ amicus brief demonstrates that their court-packing plans are more than mere pandering. They are a direct, immediate threat to the independence of the judiciary and the rights of all Americans.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the Democrats’ brief, which was authored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), was widely panned by legal experts for its audacious tone and tenor. In the brief, Whitehouse argued that if the court refused to vacate and remand the case to the lower court with instructions for it to be dismissed, the court may face a public backlash and calls for a “restructuring” of the court.
“The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it. Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be ‘restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.’ Particularly on the urgent issue of gun control, a nation desperately needs it to heal,” the brief said.” – Jerry Lambe, Law & Crime
This is the same Senator Whitehouse that Judicial Watch discovered was using invalid legal credentials, violating Bar Rules and attempting Unauthorized Practice of Law.
Of course Savannah Behrmann, of USA TODAY decided to editorialize by predictably blaming Sen. Mitch McConnell for the Letter that seeks to prevent the Democrat’s goal of ‘fundamentally transforming America’ by ‘packing the Court’:
“Pledging not to allow Democrats to “pack the Court,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his GOP colleagues in the chamber sent a letter to the Supreme Court Thursday that pushes back on a friend-of-the-court brief recently filed by five Senate Democrats in a Second Amendment case currently before the high court.
All 53 of the Republicans in the Senate signed the letter.
The brief from the handful of Democratic senators urged the Supreme Court to reject as moot a challenge to New York City’s gun laws, which involves a defunct law that barred the transport of firearms to gun ranges outside the city, writing that the courts “do not undertake political ‘projects.’ Or at least they should not.” – Savannah Behrmann, USA Today
This kind of rhetoric and language being used by the left-leaning mainstream media has contributed to the increasing polarized and hostile climate since the 2016 election. We have seen industries, agencies, media, academia and technology all be weaponized and used as a tool for propaganda or attacking the Trump administration or attempting to hamstring it. One study by Harvard showed CNN and NBC’s coverage of the Trump administration was 93% negative.
With the current hostile and increasingly partisan atmosphere in Washington, some people see the Democrat’s amicus brief as a ‘not so subtle’ warning to the court to reach a particular outcome in the case (that the Democrats and their special interest groups want) or it could face a push from Democrats on Capitol Hill and some segments of the public for structural changes.
Others have claimed that the amicus brief was the Democrats pushing back on what they see as a danger in the current health crisis of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the potential that President Trump will get a third Supreme Court appointment that could tip the balance of the Court back toward its traditional, constitutional leanings.
This story is still developing…
NO threats here, just facts. It’s HIGHLY unusual for a case to be accepted by the Supreme Court despite the fact that there were NO, ZIP, ZILCH, disputes in lower courts. Highly unusual. Now, we know that special interest spending on campaigns to influence THE COURT rivals that of political campaigns. For instance, the year Kavanaugh was being considered, the… Read more »