WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has big plans for the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary if Democrats win the elections, from imposing ethical standards and preventing litigants from “shopping” for friendly judges to legislatively reversing its rulings on abortion and presidential immunity.
“It’s a very big priority,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview Thursday before the Senate left for a five-week summer recess. “I feel very strongly for the sake of the republic we need reform in the courts.”
Schumer said Republicans have devised a “brilliant but destructive” scheme to get the courts to enact a “hard right” agenda for which they can’t find public support. “They spent three decades trying to take over the courts,” he said. “They’ve achieved it.”
Democrats have introduced a series of proposals for the Supreme Court and the judiciary, some with the Biden administration’s support. One would impose a binding code of ethics, with disclosure and recusal rules, for justices, which Democrats tried to pass this year after ProPublica reported on undisclosed gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas from a wealthy GOP donor. Another would slap 18-year term limits on justices. A third would end “ forum shopping,” in which savvy litigants can land major cases before friendly judges in specific divisions. The “No Kings Act,” which Schumer announced Thursday, would reverse the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling — which decided that presidents are immune from prosecution for some “official acts” — and rein in the court’s ability to determine whom criminal laws are applied to. And the “Women’s Health Protection Act” would restore federal abortion rights, reversing the court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
If Democrats win control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, Schumer said, a broad range of ideas are in play.
“The Supreme Court has become a morass, both ethically and substantively,” he said. “We’re going to look at everything. There are lots of proposals.”
He said Congress has to intervene on Supreme Court ethics because Chief Justice John Roberts “is derelict in his responsibilities” and won’t enforce standards himself.
The proposals have no realistic chance of passing unless Democrats win the trifecta. Asked whether Republicans would entertain any of them should they win the Senate, a Judiciary Committee member, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, replied: “Hell no.”
“Democrats have made the very cynical decision to try to destroy the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary,” Cruz said.
Republicans are pleased with the 6-3 conservative majority they’ve built on the Supreme Court and have cast Democratic efforts to reform it as an expression of anger with its outcomes. Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said term limits and ethics legislation are “dead on arrival” in the Senate. But Schumer said the issue is bigger than ideological disputes.
He would also have to find a way around the 60-vote rule to pass court reforms through the Senate. Asked whether piercing the filibuster is on the table, he said: “I’m not going to speculate on the filibuster at this point. But I would say we need to change the courts to deal with the morass. And we’re looking at everything.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, endorsed term limits and ethics rules this week. She said there’s “a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court as its fairness has been called into question after numerous ethics scandals and decision after decision overturning long-standing precedent.”
Before the new year, Schumer has an immediate priority: confirming more judges. He had set a goal of surpassing former President Donald Trump’s 234 judges confirmed in four years. So far, President Joe Biden has secured 205 judges.
“We are going to use the lame duck to confirm judges,” he said, referring to the post-election period until the new year. “And we’re going to do everything we can to get as many judges done as possible, trying to overcome the Republican obstruction.”
But Schumer stopped short of promising to surpass Trump’s total.
“We’ll do our best,” he said.
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