A Harris Victory Could Change the Supreme Court…Drastically.
A win for Kamala Harris on November 5 could have extreme implications for the future of the Supreme Court.
It’s no secret the Democratic Party is unhappy with the current Supreme Court. The Robert’s Court has been a period of regression. Under his watch the Court has overturned many precedents, some extremely foundational to the modern understanding of their respective fields.
The most notable is the court’s targeting of individual rights found under substantive due process; the overturning of Roe v. Wade was the first step in the conservative majority’s conquest to rid the country of these — in their own words — “egregiously found” rights that have otherwise been considered constitutionally valid for decades. Justice Clarence Thomas’s declaration of his disdain for substantive due process as a whole and his desire to overturn every right found under it in future cases is a scary possibility. No precedent is safe from being overturned.
Overturning precedents is not the only major concern of the Court’s current attitude; its continual shift towards the ideological right is arguably more so. The recent decision in Trump v. United States only fuels this fear. The Court has given a President complete immunity from criminal prosecution in any act they conduct in an “official capacity”. Complete immunity. A President can order the assassination of a political opponent and be completely immune from criminal punishment. Never, in our country’s entire history, has a Supreme Court decision been this radical and detrimental to our system of checks and balances.
The path the Court has set upon is scary not just for the Democratic Party, but for America as a whole. The decisions it has already made, and the ones it can make in the future, have had and will have major consequences for our democracy and its promise of liberty and freedom.
The recent calls for reform published by President Joe Biden display the fear many have in the country’s current situation. The President expressed the need for a strong, binding code of conduct over the Justices, as well as a term limit system that places a limit upon the time a Justice can serve on the bench.
While these are the words of President Biden, they may show strong signs of an initiative growing in the Democratic Party that could be embraced and acted upon by Kamala Harris.
A victory for Harris this cycle could potentially mean the Democrats regaining control of the House, and possibly keeping that of the Senate. A democratic controlled Congress with a President Kamala Harris could see the passing of strong Supreme Court reforms. Considering that Harris has distanced herself from President Biden on certain topics makes it difficult to predict whether she would embrace the reforms already laid out by him. There are also other possible routes she could follow not specifically mentioned by the President. She could advocate for expanding or shrinking the size of the Court, placing harsher restrictions on what Justices can or can’t do (similar to a strong ethics code), specifically define grounds for impeachment of Supreme Court justices, and more.
One thing is for sure, however, if Harris does adopt a sentiment similar to that of the President, she could be the first President to pass major reform targeted towards the Supreme Court in our history. Such a decision would have extreme implications on our contemporary policy of checks and balances, and may push our country into a new chapter of our democracy.
