'This Is A Slippery Slope': John Thune Decries 'Court Packing' And SCOTUS Reforms Pushed By Dems

3 months ago

During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) spoke about SCOTUS reforms.

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Transcript

00:00We are.

00:01I would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended.

00:05Without objection.

00:06Mr. President, yesterday evening, in the tradition of another Democrat president and his infamous

00:10court-packing scheme way back in 1937, President Biden announced a proposal to interfere with

00:17the Constitution's separation of powers and permanently politicize the Supreme Court.

00:23He dressed it up with appeals to permanent American values.

00:29But what it all boiled down to, Mr. President, was this.

00:34Democrats don't like some of the Supreme Court's recent decisions.

00:38And so he decided to change the rules of the game.

00:42That's it.

00:43Mr. President, I've disagreed with more than one Supreme Court decision in my time.

00:49I've disagreed with Supreme Court justices nominated by presidents of my own party.

00:56But I have never thought that my not agreeing with a Supreme Court decision meant that the

01:01court itself was illegitimate, or that my party should attempt to change the law to

01:06make over the Supreme Court in our image.

01:10Well, not so for Democrats.

01:14The Supreme Court releases a handful of decisions that Democrats don't like, and they decide

01:19that the court is illegitimate, and that it's time to remake the court to their liking.

01:27More than one Democrat has already introduced legislation in Congress to do just that.

01:33And now, with the President's announcement yesterday, it's become clear that those plans

01:38have accelerated, and that if Democrats take the White House and Congress in November,

01:43we can expect them to lose no time in destroying the court as we know it.

01:50And while the President's proposals are troubling enough, a measure to circumvent the Constitution's

01:57lifetime appointments for justice, and replace the Supreme Court's own code of conduct with

02:03a code of conduct mandated by Democrat members of Congress, who knows?

02:12Who knows if Democrats will stop there?

02:15After all, while their proposal would conveniently start by retiring Republican appointees, Democrats

02:21would only be able to retire one justice every two years.

02:28What's to say that would be fast enough for Democrats?

02:34We all know that court packing, which is expanding the Supreme Court until you get a sufficient

02:39number of justices to endorse your policies, has gained significant traction in Democrat

02:46circles.

02:47Indeed, President Biden's term limits proposal is a version of court packing by another name.

02:56And it would not surprise me at all if Democrats didn't stop there.

03:00Because make no mistake, Mr. President, this is a slippery slope.

03:07Once you start interfering, there is no going back.

03:13If the Democrats implement this plan, it is easy to see a future where each subsequent

03:17administration acts to return balance to the Supreme Court, with the result that the Supreme

03:26Court changes wildly from administration to administration, losing all independence and

03:32credibility and any resemblance to the Supreme Court as established by the Constitution.

03:39I'd like to remind my Democrat colleagues of what happened with the filibuster for judicial

03:43nominees here in the Senate.

03:46Back in 2013, Democrats, frustrated that they could not rubber stamp all of President Obama's

03:53appointees, abolished the filibuster for lower court nominees.

04:01Turned out to be a quick step from that to abolishing the filibuster for Supreme Court

04:08nominees a few years later.

04:13And I'm pretty sure that I've heard more than one of my Democrat colleagues express regret

04:20over that 2013 decision.

04:23But it seems that Democrats are resolved not to learn from history, and are perfectly willing

04:30to sacrifice the long-term stability of the Supreme Court for their own short-term political

04:35gain.

04:39Mr. President, even worse than any specific element of President Biden's proposals yesterday

04:43is the incredibly dangerous precedent they would set for meddling in what is supposed

04:49to be a separate, independent branch of our government.

04:56If Democrats were really, really concerned about impartiality in the rule of law and

05:02promoting faith in the Supreme Court, the last thing they would be doing is interfering

05:10with the Court's makeup.

05:14If there are any Democrats left in Congress who are willing to put the long-term health

05:20of our institutions over some temporary political gain, I urge them.

05:26I urge them to join Republicans in opposing this power grab.

05:30Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

'This Is A Slippery Slope': John Thune Decries 'Court Packing' And SCOTUS Reforms Pushed By Dems

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