With the 2024 presidential race sure to be close and competitive, it's worth examining the polls – which could change or even be wrong – but also what's at stake. Democrats and far-left activist groups have ranted and raved about the "illegitimacy" of the U.S. Supreme Court because former and potentially future President Donald Trump was able to appoint three justices. They're also likely to go after the Senate filibuster if Democrats keep control of the chamber. We've heard of these plans for years, but they're once more relevant with the election being less than six months away.
At our sister site HotAir, John Sexton highlights how "Progressive Groups Gear Up for Anti-Scotus Campaign," referencing a report from Rolling Stone, which has become rather far-left. The coalition in question is United for Democracy, and, according to Rolling Stone, it "is gearing up to launch a $10 million persuasion and base activation campaign centered on 'the MAGA Supreme Court.'"
The article is in the "Connecting the Dots" section, with the subheadline reading, "Many voters don't blame Donald Trump or Republicans for the Supreme Court's increasingly right-wing decisions. This coalition wants to change that."
There are plenty of the expected talking points throughout the article (emphasis added):
Stasha Rhodes, campaign director for United for Democracy, says the coalition’s latest campaign is about “talking to Americans across the country about the issues they care about, and how the Supreme Court is connected to either rolling back the progress or standing in the way of us being able to make progress on those issues.” The point, she says, “is taking this message outside of Washington, and directly to the American people.”
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She argues that progressives must work on “connecting the dots for voters,” as conservatives have for decades, and make taking control of — and reforming — the Supreme Court a core voting issue for their base.
Rhodes suggests messages tying together the “the bad actors”: “This Supreme Court is a Trump/MAGA Court; A vote for Trump/MAGA is a vote for the Roberts/MAGA Supreme Court. Then we need to layer in what they can do to check those bad actors: showing voters that they have an opportunity this November to register their objection against the MAGA politicians responsible for this Court at the ballot box.”
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The reports created an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy at the Supreme Court, and led to justices agreeing to an ethics code for the first time, though it is relatively weak.
As one can see, the narrative that there is "an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy at the Supreme Court" is one that the left obsesses over.
There are actually 140 groups that are a part of the coalition. Many of them are dedicated to leftist causes, such as gun control and abortion. Further emphasizing an abortion-centered message is the content of an ad. Rolling Stone was able to access some of the materials.
As the report also mentions (emphasis mine):
A video script says: “The MAGA Supreme Court is making a relentless power grab. While some fight to defend our rights, MAGA Republicans are working to help the court strip away our freedoms. They’ve stolen our reproductive freedom, our freedom from gun violence. They’ve let corporations pollute our drinking water. Again and again, this court has ruled for their billionaire donors — at the expense of our rights and freedoms.”
A planned Facebook ad says that Supreme Court justices are “rewriting the laws and rules to help their billionaire backers get richer and more powerful,” while another urges users to “tell Congress to fix the court.”
The mention of so-called "abortion rights" is unsurprising, though it's still troubling. Thanks to Trump's appointments, the Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022. That decision was leaked in early May of that year, but not officially handed down until late June, toward the end of the term.
From the start, and with the second anniversary of the leak having just passed, President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats have reminded us that they're more focused on Roe being overturned than they are on the unprecedented nature of the leak and the ensuing threats and violence.
Following the leak, illegal protests took place outside the homes of conservative justices, a move then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki downplayed, saying it was something they "encourage." Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the opinion, left his home for a time and attended events remotely from an undisclosed location. Nicholas John Roske is facing federal charges for a plan to kidnap and assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and he allegedly had plans to do the same to other conservative justices.
Pro-life organizations and Catholic Churches were also targeted, though pro-abortion Democrats have responded with whataboutism.
A highlighted excerpt above references a narrative that "progressives must work on 'connecting the dots for voters,' as conservatives have for decades, and make taking control of — and reforming — the Supreme Court a core voting issue for their base."
To say that they're trying to go about "reforming" the Court is a polite way of saying radically changing it, likely by packing the Court. Let's also not forget how liberals forced out one of their own, now retired Justice Stephen Breyer so that Biden could move forward with his discriminatory criteria and nominate now Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson because she's a black woman. Breyer's retirement was even leaked ahead of time. Now, liberals are looking for Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire.
The Court has indeed been a voting issue for conservatives, including and especially with the 2016 election. As we covered at the time when the Dobbs decision was officially handed down, it was a motivating factor for Trump voters:
We say that elections matter, because they truly do. They especially did in 2016. Trump voters were motivated by the Supreme Court vacancy [left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia], while Clinton voters weren't.
According to Statista, a majority, at 56 percent, of Trump voters said Supreme Court appointments were "the most important factor." Meanwhile, a majority of Clinton voters, at 55 percent, said it was "not a factor at all."
The Washington Post also highlighted such data. "More to the point, though, 26 percent of Trump voters told pollsters that Supreme Court nominees were the most important factor in their voting, compared with only 18 percent of Hillary Clinton voters who said the same," Philip Bump wrote in his analysis.
The crusade against the Court goes beyond coalitions, though. Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network has highlighted how connected Vice President Kamala Harris is to this.
Vice President Harris despises the Supreme Court for being faithful to the Constitution and refusing to decide cases based on the Left’s policy preferences.
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 10, 2024
That’s the root of her criticism. https://t.co/gpL8j7sAC0
Reminder:
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 9, 2024
Vice President Harris recently hired Brian Fallon, the founder of left-wing dark money group Demand Justice that led the charge in attempting to intimidate the justices and pack the Court.
Now VP Harris is reading Demand Justice talking points in interviews and… pic.twitter.com/lbolzi8XjL
The filibuster is also at risk. Now Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) campaigned on abolishing it, especially in the context of hoping to pass the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA). The Biden White House and Democrats claim that it will merely "restore" or "codify" Roe, though, in reality, it will expand it, leading to abortion being available in all 50 states up until birth for any reason without legal limit.
Although Fetterman replacing now former Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who was retiring, meant that Democrats picked up a seat, they still have a particularly narrow majority. They don't appear to have given up on their crusade, though.
Severino also highlighted an article from The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board addressing how "The Filibuster Will Be on the Senate Ballot." The piece mentions how Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who is up for reelection in 2028, is not only up for getting rid of the filibuster, but made a ridiculous comparison to working for NASA.
If Democrats take total control of the government, they will gut the filibuster and try to pack the Supreme Court.
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 8, 2024
Because that’s what liberal dark money groups are demanding of them. pic.twitter.com/TDZ6Ffq3tp
As the piece warns:
Democrats have sometimes said they don’t want to nuke the filibuster, only carve out exclusions. But as Mr. Kelly acknowledged, two years ago he argued for passing progressive “voting rights legislation” with 51 votes. This highlights the joke of saying that Democrats will preserve the filibuster, other than for one or two or seven rare exceptions.
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The result would be a winner-take-all politics, since a Senate that can protect abortion with 51 votes can ban it with 51 votes, and ditto on guns, unions and anything else.
Mr. Kelly isn’t up for re-election in November. But Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, who’s vying to replace independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, has backed “filibuster reform” in the past. Ms. Sinema was one of the key votes protecting the filibuster in 2021-22. Montana’s Sen. Jon Tester, Ohio’s Sen. Sherrod Brown and Nevada’s Sen. Jacky Rosen, all running for re-election, have also said they’re open to changing the filibuster rule in some fashion.
Voters who want to temper our partisan furies can help by keeping in mind that the filibuster is on the Senate ballot in November.
Chances look pretty good for Republicans to take back control of the Senate, especially in comparison to the 2022 election, with Democrats having to defend vulnerable members and Republican seats considered vulnerable – Florida and Texas – looking pretty safe.
However, anything could happen in November, especially if Trump doesn't win and possibly drags down Republican candidates in key swing states. The presidential race looks especially close in key swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan, where vulnerable Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin is running in the former and Michigan has an open seat.