Where Was the Fight Against Court Packing?

Democrats slept while Republicans took control of the Judiciary

Like many people, I had a reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling rejecting race as a factor in admissions in higher education. More specifically I had a reaction to the reactions. It was, Oh Please.

The bleeding hearts of the Liberal Left and the Black Activist industry were crying giant crocodile tears after the ruling. They also sobbed when the Court ruled a business can refuse service to the queer community as a matter of free speech.

Anyone who has been “woke” for the last few decades knew these Supreme Court decisions were coming. There are more to come. For YEARS Conservatives have been quietly and relentlessly packing the federal courts with judges and justices who would vote this way.

My question is: Where was the fight against Court Packing?

The long struggle for equal education

A quick history lesson: the NAACP has been fighting for school integration for a very long time as a means of ending second-class education for blacks.

For years racist whites have squeezed education funding to make sure ghetto schools were second rate with shabby classrooms, shabby, books and sometimes shabby teachers. Whites convinced themselves blacks just aren’t as smart as whites.

In 1972 the Ku Klux Klan firebombed school buses in Pontiac, Michigan when the NAACP pushed for forced busing to integrate schools. Busing soon went away.

Minority Rights advocates focused on the other end of the education spectrum, demanding consideration of race in college admissions.

Let’s be straight about the ruling against using race as a basis for admissions in higher education.

It was mostly about giving minorities from lower income neighborhoods and schools the kind of credentials upper-class white have enjoyed for decades.

A degree from Harvard, Stanford, Yale or other “prestige” schools has a certain cachet, a certain “Wow! Factor” that doesn’t go with a degree from smaller, lesser universities.

The Reverse Discrimination Argument

The White Right decided to fight back in the courts.

Opponents argued race-based admissions favoring minorities was reverse discrimination against whites.

To ensure victory, Conservatives bought an insurance policy by using Senate judicial confirmations to pack the federal courts with ultra-conservative judges and Supreme Court Justices. It was court-packing and it was engineered by a Right-Wing judicial advocacy outfit known as the Federalist Society.

Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project says a conservative majority on the Supreme Court wasn’t some bolt-out-of-the-blue sneak attack:

“The Federalist Society didn’t come up with this fiendish plan to take over the courts last year. They’ve been doing it for almost 40 years now.”

The Federalist Society is a conservative judicial advocacy group dedicated to filling the courts with ultra-conservative judges.

Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Dobbs anti-abortion decision, and Judge Aileen Cannon of Florida, a Trump-appointee who will preside over his federal criminal trial, are both members of the Federalist Society.

Leo For years it has been led by Leonard Leo, a power behind the throne recently implicated in the cozy and questionable relationships between Supreme Court justices Thomas and Alito and billionaires with cases before the high court.

Considering what Rick Wilson said, where were the so-called Libs over the last 40 years while the Right Wing was transforming the Judicial branch of government? Where was the fight against court packing?

I must’ve missed it.

Mitch McConnell is arguably the Republican politician who has done the most to fill our federal courts with Right-Wing zealots. He thinks it’s his greatest achievement:

“I think it’s the single biggest contribution we’ve made to changing America in the future.”

Where was the intense and persistent resistance from the Democrats when McConnell, year after year, was pushing the federal courts to the extreme right?

I must’ve missed it.

Control of the Judicial Branch goes through the Senate

For those who slept through Civics class, federal judgeships are lifetime appointments.

Federal judges are nominated by Presidents and approved by the U.S. Senate.

The Senate is the key to who gets a lifetime job as a federal judge. The majority party among the Senators usually prevails in the judicial sweepstakes.

Nearly a dozen Republican Senators are up for re-election in 2024. They mostly represent states in the Midwest and South.

Consider Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi. A former Congressman, Wicker appointed to fill a Senate seat in 2007. He subsequently won election to the Senate. We should listen to one of his campaign ads about abortion and then consider the kind of judges he wants to vote for in the Senate:

“I’m the author, right now, of legislation providing that no taxpayer funding can be used to fund abortions of any kind. So I’m proud of my pro-life work. We have a lot more work to be done.”

Rick Wilson:

“Elections have consequences. This is what happens when you don’t take it seriously. This is what happens when you let years and years of apathy set in to a political party.

“You gotta pay attention to these things. You gotta work the problem.”

Remember this: For years, Liberals and Centrists sat on their hands with their minds in neutral, while the Radical Right Wing took over our federal courts, right up to the Supreme Court.

They did it by packing the courts with radical judges nominated by Republican Presidents and approved by Republican-controlled United States Senates. It’s going to take time to repair the damage. We can start by defeating the Republican Senators up for re-election in 2024. There are nearly a dozen of them. They CAN be defeated—IF you vote against them.