Demand Justice, the progressive judicial advocacy group that spent $1 million to support and promote Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, reveals it’s planning a $10 million campaign to advocate for reforms to the nation’s highest court – including expanding it – and protect the institution from a possible Trump second term.
“Our democracy is in an absolute crisis, and the Supreme Court majority is accelerating it,” Demand Justice senior adviser Skye Perryman told Politico Monday, after SCOTUS handed down its ruling that presidents have “absolute” immunity from prosecution for “official” acts.
“The thing we want the American people to know is that our Constitution, even in this crisis, provides the tools for people to be able to fight back.”
Demand Justice, co-founded by former Hillary Clinton national press secretary Brian Fallon, has plans ranging from “conducting opposition research on potential Supreme Court picks to advocating for ethics reforms for the high court,” Politico reports.
“It will also work to mobilize key constituencies affected by the court’s decisions, including women and young people, and to call out a network of far-right judicial activists that laid the groundwork for the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court.”
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The group also plans to position the Supreme Court as a major reason for Democrats to vote in the November presidential election. Court watchers believe whoever wins the White House could have the opportunity to replace as many as three justices, given the current group’s ages and what some see as massive corruption and possible violations of federal law by some of the right-wing justices.
Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, at 76 is the Court’s oldest member. Justice Samuel Alito is 74, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, and Chief Justice John Roberts is 69.
Monday’s ruling greatly expanding presidential power, declaring presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for “official” acts, has dramatically changed American democracy, experts say.
Conservative former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig on Monday said the 6-3 decision along partisan lines represented the “unsouling” of America, as HuffPost reported.
“America’s democracy and rule of law are this country’s heart and soul,” Judge Luttig said. “Our democracy and the rule of law are what had made America the envy of the world and the beacon of freedom to the world for almost 250 years now. Today, the Supreme Court cut that heart and soul out of America.”
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Also on Monday, top constitutional law scholar and professor Laurence Tribe accused both Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito of violating federal law by not recusing from the Trump immunity case.
“Of the 6-Justice majority in today’s terrible immunity decision, two justices (Thomas, Alito) were violating federal law (28 USC 455) by not recusing from the case and three (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett) were appointed by the man whom the decision essentially immunized,” Tribe noted.
Politico adds there are other judicial reform groups “working to build an advocacy ecosystem to challenge a deep-pocketed network of ultraconservative judicial activists helmed by Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society co-chair.”
They include Court Accountability, United for Democracy, and Fix the Court.