Democrats Need To Stop Trying To Tear Down The Supreme Court
Attempts to delegitimize the Court are a short-sighted attack on American democracy.
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Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Democrats have been trying to undermine the legitimacy of the Court. Last June, the head of the DNC Jaime Harrison explicitly called the Supreme Court “illegitimate” and said it was engaged in “tyranny.” Senator Ed Markey echoed the sentiment earlier this year, calling the Court “broken and illegitimate” and analogizing it to a schoolyard bully.
In some sense, I can understand where this antipathy is coming from. Since the 1950s, the Supreme Court has been instrumental in many of the most important progressive victories. Now that the direction of the Court has changed, Democrats are left feeling the same kind of indignation at the Court flexing its muscles that conservatives have been complaining about for decades. So when Biden says that “this is not a normal court” he’s right in the sense that the Court is not as friendly to the left’s agenda as Democrats have become used to.
But no matter how frustrated Democrats are with the Court, the calls to undermine, pack, ignore, or otherwise treat it as illegitimate need to stop.
First, Democratic attacks on the Court are an attack on American democracy itself. The separation of powers is the foundation of the American Constitution. Without the court’s ability to determine that some government action is beyond what is authorized by the Constitution, Congress and the president would have dictatorial levels of power. The balance between the three branches of government is delicate, and once it is thrown off kilter, there may be no going back. In other words, a Court that is able to restrain the other branches of government is necessary for a liberal democracy to function. And so it’s a giant red flag when one branch of government is trying to frame another as illegitimate.
The second reason that Democrats should stop attacking the Supreme Court is that it’s a terrible political strategy. No matter how much Democrats might not want to believe it, every single one of the Court’s recent decisions is supported by the majority of Americans.
Moreover, the Supreme Court is far more popular than the Democratic Party or Congress. The Court has a net approval rating of +16, which is 28 points higher than the approval of the Democratic Party (-12) and 29 points higher than approval of Congress as a whole (-13). It doesn’t take a political genius to understand that an incredibly unpopular institution attacking a moderately popular one is a bad political strategy.
The most extreme Democrats, of course, might not care about any of this. They come from the deepest blue districts and states, and their constituents will likely not penalize them for their blatantly anti-democratic behavior. It’s no surprise that the Democrats (like Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Cori Bush, and Adam Schiff) who are the most vocal about wanting to tear down a pillar of democracy and pack the Court all come from safely Democratic districts or states.
But those same incentives do not hold for the Democratic Party as a whole. Many of the most narrowly contested districts and states have voters who see the Democratic calls to delegitimize the Court for what it is: an attack on American democracy. These voters punished Trump for his disregard for constitutional norms in 2020, and they will likely do the same to Democrats if the party doesn’t change course ahead of 2024.
In short, if Democrats want to preserve their status as the party of democracy and win the upcoming elections, they’ll need to stop trying to tear down the Supreme Court.
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And what of the corruption of some of the esteemed Judges which is daily more apparent, and is seemingly now defended by them on the basis that they are the law supreme and empowered for life?
Something is rotten in the non-state of Washington, and it’s stench is too strong to be ignored...
You did not cite the origin of the polls you cited in this article