On November 6th, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, struck down an Ohio school district’s pronoun policy in a win for free speech and student rights. The court ‘sitting en banc’ ruled 10-7 that “the mere use of biological pronouns does not entail ‘aggressive, disruptive action.” Not surprisingly, the court was split along ideological lines, with every Republican appointee voting with the students and every Democrat appointee voting with the school district.
But before proceeding I want to be clear, this commentary isn’t about the merits of the case, rather, it should serve as a warning about a trend amongst the Left that would have the Founders turning in their graves.
U.S. Courts of Appeals cases are normally heard by a panel of three judges. However, sometimes the court will decide that a particular case is important enough to be heard “en banc,” meaning that it’s decided by all active judges, a mechanism intended to ensure the integrity and coherence of the circuit’s jurisprudence.
“In Vino Veritas – In Wine There is Truth”
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley used this old Roman proverb to illustrate how people are often most honest after they’ve had a few. And winning contests in three blue states and a deep-blue city during an off-year election has the democrat establishment openly discussing their ambitions to reshape our constitutional system and doing so, with startling candor.
Democrat Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) a politician with designs on the White House said, “The Democratic Party looks powerful for the first time all year.” Murphy wanted to continue the shutdown, admitting “If we surrender without having gotten anything, and we cause a lot of folks in this country who had started to believe in the Democratic Party to retreat again — I worry that it will be hard to sort of, get them back up off the mat in time for next fall’s election.”
Meanwhile, Barack Obama’s former Attorney General, Eric Holder, is telling anyone within earshot that once the democrats regain control of government in 2028, they intend to keep it permanently, offering that, “the Supreme Court is hopelessly broken and must be fundamentally changed,” a clear echo of Barack Obama’s promise in 2008, i.e., “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America”
It’s believed here if there’s a democrat trifecta in 2028, the nation the Founders’ envisioned, will be lost forever. To paraphrase Turley, the Supreme Court as we know it is already coming under fire from the Left. In fact, many on the Left are questioning the need for a Supreme Court at all, with some calling for it to be defied or dissolved. And to quote Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “How much does the current structure benefit us?” I don’t think it does.”
Many democrats have already called for the elimination of the senate filibuster not just on the matter of the shutdown, but to force through measures such as making Puerto Rico and D.C. our 51st and 52nd states (with the addition of four new (democrat) senators. Additionally, it’s a safe bet that any election or immigration reform will be viewed through the lens of woke ideology.
Turley writes how years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans will never win another election, while warning that the Supreme Court could strike down everything he described, therefore, the court must be packed ‘in advance’ to ensure these changes to occur.
Several weeks ago, democratic strategist James Carville laid out the step-by-step process of how the plan would work. “I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen. A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028 – you know that and I know that. And the new democrat president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on the reform of the Supreme Court. And they’re going to recommend the number of Supreme Court justices go from nine to 13. That’s going to happen, people.”
Carville explained that court-packing will be as inevitable as the democrats taking power. “They’re going to have a blue-ribbon panel of distinguished jurists, and they are going to recommend 13 Supreme Court Justices, and a democratic senate and house will pass it, and the democrat president is going to sign it.”
Recall, two months after taking office, President Joe Biden established a presidential commission made up of a “bipartisan group of experts” charged with analyzing arguments for expanding the number of Supreme Courts justices and incorporating term-limits. Interestingly, the Cato Institute estimated the ratio of “progressives to conservatives” on the “bipartisan commission” at about 3 to 1. And vis-à-vis the result, the next democrat president will likely increase that ratio to at least 4 or 5 to 1. As Jonathan Turley wisely noted, “Eric Holder said it all – it’s all about the acquisition and the use of power.”
Quote of the day: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price…” – Chuck Schumer, March 2020.