The WSJ has an editorial titled Senators File an Enemy-of-the-Court Brief with subhead Democrats order the Justices to drop a gun case--or else.
CJLF takes no position on the underlying question in the case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. City of New York, No. 18-820. However, the court-packing threat illustrates why Sen. Whitehouse and his ilk must never have full control of the government. As for this overt political threat made while talking about reducing the influence of politics, that pretty much speaks for itself.When liberals worry about losing a major Supreme Court case, they usually make appeals to the Court's "legitimacy." This is intended to attract Chief Justice John Roberts by suggesting that a conservative outcome would damage the institution's reputation. The ritual is disingenuous but usually subtle.
Five Democratic Senators have had it with subtle. In a remarkable and threatening amicus brief, Sheldon Whitehouse, Mazie Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Richard Durbin and Kirsten Gillibrand all but tell the Justices that they'll retaliate politically if the Court doesn't do what they say in a Second Amendment case.
"The Supreme Court is not well," they tell the Justices in what is really an enemy-of-the-Court brief. "Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be 'restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.'" By "restructured," they mean packed with new Justices by a Democratic President and Senate after they kill the filibuster.
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