In the wake of the controversial decision to overrule the nearly 50-year precedent of Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide, multiple news outlets are calling the the Supreme Court of the United States an “illegitimate institution” after being highjacked by far-right extremists to impose their will on the American People.
“As of 24 June 2022, the US supreme court should officially be understood as an illegitimate institution – a tool of minority rule over the majority, and as part of a far-right ideological and authoritarian takeover that must be snuffed out if we want American democracy to survive,” The Guardian’s Jill Filipovic writes.
Filipovic also points out that five of the nine justices sitting on the current court, – all of them in the majority opinion that overturned Roe – “were appointed by presidents who initially lost the popular vote; the three appointed by Donald Trump were confirmed by senators who represent a minority of Americans. A majority of this court, in other words, were not appointed by a process that is representative of the will of the American people.”
She noted that two of these judges “were appointed via starkly undemocratic means, put in place by bad actors willing to change the rules to suit their needs. Neil Gorsuch only has his seat because Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, blocked the ability of Barack Obama to nominate Merrick Garland – or anyone – to a supreme court seat, claiming that, because it was an election year, voters should get to decide.”
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“And then Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett in a radically rushed and incomplete, incoherent process – just days before the presidential election,” she wrote, adding that the court is now “stacked with far-right judges appointed via ignoble means.”
“Democrats now have a choice,” she wrote. “They can give speeches and send fundraising emails. Or they can act: declare this court illegitimate. Demand its expansion. Abolish the filibuster. Treat this like the emergency it is, and make America a representative democracy.”
In an Op-Ed for Teen Vogue, Harvard law school professor Niko Bowie called the US Supreme Court an anti-democratic institution that has wielded an anti-democratic influence on American law, one that has undermined federal attempts to eliminate hierarchies of race, wealth, and status.”
He also declared that “the time to critically assess and reconfigure the Court’s role in our society is now. Our democracy depends on it.”
The Calexico Chronicle warned that the complete disregard for women’s rights in its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has officially make the Supreme Court an “illegitimate institution.”
“Now, no branch of government or public would take it with credibility. Our faith in the rule of law as we knew it has end. This is no victory for any side,” it concluded.
As noted by Vox, the legitimacy quickly eroded after the unprecedented blockade of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016, the bitter fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 nomination, the GOP’s brazen disregard of the Garland precedent in 2020 to appoint Amy Coney Barrett after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.”
Now, the new rulings by hardline conservative judges have permanently damaged to the idea that the Court is somehow above politics. As a result, many Americans favor radical reforms to the Court: 66 percent favor term limits for justices, and a majority favors packing, or expanding, the Court.
