McConnell: “No Secret” Where VP Harris Stands On Undermining The Supreme Court
‘On a laundry list of issues, Vice President Harris’ flip-flops have left voters wondering where she stands. But this particular one is no secret. The Democratic nominee for President of the United States wants to reanimate a dangerous, long-rejected attack on judicial independence. An idea the American people would do well to send back to the ash-heap where it belongs.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding court packing:
“About halfway through President Biden’s term, he leveled some rather weighty accusations at the opposition party. He said Republicans ‘do not respect the Constitution’ and ‘do not believe in the rule of law.’
“This was rich coming from someone who was already exploring the possibility of resurrecting one of the most flagrant affronts to the Constitution in American history.
“After less than a hundred days in office, the President had formed a faux-academic commission to revisit a plan to toss out the separation of powers and pack the Supreme Court.
“This idea had been dead and buried since the 1930s, when it proved so inconceivable to even the most loyal New Deal Democrats that it almost tore President Roosevelt’s administration apart. And just months after convening, the President’s own commission concluded that structural changes would risk irreparable damage to an independent judiciary.
“The commissioners warned that ‘in recent years, we have seen democratic governments 'regress' or 'backslide' with respect to judicial independence. This has come about through electoral majorities using their power to restructure previously independent institutions, including courts, to favor the political agendas of those governments.’
“Now, this didn’t entirely chasten Washington Democrats.
“And even though they haven’t yet gone forward with a nearly ninety-year-old plan to turn the nation’s highest court into a fief of the presidency, the campaign to undermine judicial independence is alive and well, including here in the Senate!
“Vice President Harris, for her part, has yet to disavow her own openness to taking truly radical steps.
“In 2019, then Senator Harris said: ‘We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the Supreme Court…We have to take this challenge head on, and everything is on the table to do that.’
“’Everything is on the table…’ Including, as she confirmed just this summer, packing the Court. The Vice President endorsed the President’s call for, quote, ‘imposing term limits for Justices’ active service…’
“It would be difficult to draw up a more devastating blow to public confidence in the independence of a co-equal branch of government than subordinating it to the election cycles of another.
“On a laundry list of issues, Vice President Harris’ flip-flops have left voters wondering where she stands. But this particular one is no secret.
“The Democratic nominee for President of the United States wants to reanimate a dangerous, long-rejected attack on judicial independence. An idea the American people would do well to send back to the ash-heap where it belongs.”
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Related Issues: Supreme Court
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