Below is my column on Fox.com discussing the most recent call to be “ruthless” and to pack the Supreme Court. It is only the latest call for fundamental changes in our system on the 250th anniversary of our revolution.
Here is the column:
“Let’s get ruthless.”
Those words are, unfortunately, nothing new in this age of rage. In just the last few weeks, various liberal pundits and politicians have been calling for radical and even violent action.
Even comedian Margaret Cho publicly declared this week that “we need a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat.”
However, these words were reposted by Bill Kristol, the founder of the Weekly Standard and the current editor-in-chief of The Bulwark. Kristol was a leading conservative figure in the Republican Party.
Kristol left the Republican Party and is now a vehemently anti-Trump writer. There are certainly good-faith reasons why some conservatives have broken with Trump on a variety of issues.
However, the original column was endorsing the Democratic plan to pack the Supreme Court with an instant liberal majority to force through a slew of political changes in the country.
Various Democrats have been pledging to not only impeach Trump (and a long list of other figures), but to pack the Supreme Court as soon as they regain power.
James Carville declared, “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust. Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”
This Nike School of Constitutional Law is catching on with a wide array of pundits and professors. Just do it.
Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.
Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has put packing the Supreme Court front and center, explaining, “[We’re] talking about the acquisition and the use of power if there is a Democratic trifecta in 2028.”
Years ago, I wrote an academic piece on the possible expansion of the Supreme Court, but there is a world of difference between that and a court-packing plan. Under my proposal, the court’s expansion would take almost two decades to ensure that no president could pack the court.
It was not just the company that Kristol is keeping on the issue, or his endorsement of the long-anathema concept of court packing, but also his rationale for the move. Kristol cited the successful Democratic gerrymandering efforts in California and Virginia as triumphs that should now propel the left to pack the Court.
Kristol reposted the call for court packing from his colleague Jonathan Last: “Expanding the Supreme Court is no different from redistricting in California and Virginia,” he said. “It is a proportionate response to Republican attempts to degrade liberal democracy and move America toward a post-liberal order.”
Praising governors Gavin Newsom and Abigail Spanberger for their “ruthless” leadership in response to Republican gerrymandering, Kristol insisted that Democrats must meet “force with force” and must now pack the Supreme Court. Being ruthless, he argues, is the “only road to preserving liberal democracy.”
There is, of course, a considerable difference between altering political districts and packing the courts. Political gerrymandering has been around since the earliest days of the Republic.
The courts are not the same political fungible units. Indeed, the favorite term on the left is “illiberal democracy” to refer to democratic systems used to curtail rights and weaken checks and balances. Yet this illiberal means is being cited by Kristol as essential to save liberal democracy.
Liberal justices have spoken out against these calls for court packing.
The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it would destroy the continuity and cohesion of the court.
She added, “If anything would make the court look partisan, it would be that — one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.’”
The political districts are precisely that: political. They are part of the two political branches in a tripartite system. It is the courts that keep these political branches within their proper constitutional orbits.
There was, of course, no movement to pack the court when a series of liberal majorities rewrote major areas of constitutional law in the 1960s and 1970s. These demands from figures like Sen. Elizabeth Warren were only heard when the court began to rule against their chosen outcomes.
Warren explained that the court had to be packed to bring its rulings in line with “widely held public opinion.”
Of course, Article III was designed precisely to blunt such pressures to rule according to “widely held public opinion.” The Supreme Court is a counter-majoritarian body that was created to protect rights against the passions or demands of the majority.
As I discuss in my book, “Rage and the Republic,” the founders sought to avoid “democratic despotism” and “mobocracy” by creating barriers to direct democratic powers. The Supreme Court is essential as a bulwark against such impulse politics. Those pushing for an instant liberal majority would convert the court into the type of partisan judicial bodies seen in states like Wisconsin where jurists are selected to robotically vote for party priorities.
There is a reason why “ruthless” was not an attribute cited by anyone in the constitutional convention to be fostered in our Republic. On the contrary, the system is designed to temper ruthless passions for reasoned debate.
The court itself may be the ultimate test of the lingering capacity for reason among our citizens. Of course, we can be ruthless and tear down our institutions on the 250th anniversary of our Republic.
No democratic system is ever immune from self-inflicted wounds. That is why Benjamin Franklin reminded us that this remains our Republic if we can keep it. This year, we can celebrate that Republic, or we can ruthlessly destroy it in a fit of blind rage.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
N.B.: The original column was edited to make clear that Bill Kristol was reposting and endorsing the words of his colleague. I am still hoping that Kristol might still expressly reject this position and say that he was merely reposting a writer on the Bulwark and should not have highlighted this particular call for court packing. Thus far, he has not done so.
Kristol and his sorry lot always get it right. “Democracy“…. rule by the majority if not just by one vote. Precisely why we enjoy a tripartite constitutional republic to protect the rights of the minority…… if we can keep it.
Democracy is mob rule. Our wise founders chose individuals instead.
It seems that Democrats are ready and willing to use methods they would immediately decry as “fascist” or “authoritarian” if Trump would attempt them, in order to consolidate power. Their insatiable greed for power overrides all other considerations, such as the history and traditions of the very “democracy” they claim they want to defend. How ironic: become authoritarian to preserve liberal democracy. Hitler would be proud.
Exactly correct. I could not have stated this better myself. Thank you.
How many times can one person pretend to be almost assassinated?
How many times can one person pretend their side isn’t trying to kill our president?
Charlie Kirk is dead – was that just pretend ?
Brian Thompson, is dead – just pretend ?
Corey Comperatore is dead – just pretend ?
He’s just one more in a long line of old “rino-types” who were comfortable in the old statis quo. He’s now the new breed of Jacobins from the right side of the aisle, so to speak, who shun the new conservative movement. To them, same as with the left spectrum of dems, they fear individual freedom and limited government because the first is unpredictable and the second wants to remove the very milieu in which they had flourished. Kristol is a fossil, both in age and in thinking. We’ve seen this before with The National Review, they were/are conservative but cannot completely embrace the MAGA movement and then they dither, wondering where is their home.
Maybe they should consider how the law of unintended consequences might play out.
Looking back… the Colonists were disenfranchised by the British government. Oddly enough, that sparked the beginning of America.
Trump learned the Art of the Razor Blade from Vince McMahon…
There were supposedly gunshots but Donald Trump is sitting there without a care in the world.
Anonymous, what I find curious is that you think the assassination attempt was staged as some kind of distraction from something or other. Both MS and CNN are reporting that the event was real. All those little conspiracy theories running around in your head must be really difficult to live with. The voices that you constantly hear keep you in a constant state of fear. If Trump wasn’t around to engage your ire it would just be something else that you would find that would satisfy the feeding of your wrath. One way or the other the voices would still be there regardless of the presence of reality. Even now the voices are telling you that you must respond so that the voices might be protected. Even now they say, Anonymous you can’t let Thinkitthrough get away with that. Regaining control of your thoughts is not easy but it can be done. Don’t listen to the voices.
Supposedly? A Secret Service agent was shot. Have you ever been to the Washington Hilton? When the ballroom doors are closed, it’s next to impossible to hear anything outside the room.
Pistols can fire blanks, and cowboys and Indians can pretend to shoot each other.
So ?
The shots were in a stairwell as the assassin tried to make his way through security. They were not in the banquet hall, please get some help X.
Most people freeze when they hear a gun shot. People who are used to being shot at, know what it sounds like and dive for cover.
There were supposedly gunshots Anonymous? It’s all recorded on video and is being shown by even the left wing press. You just convince yourself that somehow it was all staged. According to your derangement it must have all been rehearsed in advance so that it could be pulled off without a flaw. Now look here mister shooter you must be very careful to shoot the security guy right where is body armor is. If you should make a mistake and shoot him in the leg your acting career will be over.
Movie director Anonymous exclaims, everyone ready? Take one.
The voices in your head even make you a famous Hollywood director of a conspiracy theory written by a famous fiction writer. They say, okay people get ready we have to make this look real. Roll tape. Action!
The TDS is strong in this one.
And officer was Shot – fortunately he had a bullet proof vest on.
There is no supposedly here.
Out side of the left loonosphere – no one is claiming this was not real
Even MS Now is reporting the truth – as best as they are able.
MAybe that is because the left wing nut press was in the line of fire and left wing journalists could have gotten killed in this effort to assassinate Trump.
Everything is theater (fake and gay) it’s all propaganda and social engineering, they need to generate support for all of their evil.
You really need to seek mental health treatment. Start here: https://www.forbes.com/health/l/best-online-therapy/?kh1=Best%20Anger%20Management%20Online%20Therapy%20Sites&account_id=150500680&network=o&device=c
“There’s going to be a bunch of journalists in one place. How can we milk this to our advantage?”
Someday there will be memoirs and tell-all diaries about everything.
For me, it is still a bit jarring to see figures like Bill Kristol go completely off the rails advocating for what I firmly believe would be the destruction of our democratic constitutional republic. I was an early subscriber to the Weekly Standard. It was the Democrat Party that convinced me I was a conservative. The Dems thought I was ignorant enough to believe their policies had my best interests in mind. I believe in limited government and the Dems are working towards unbridled government. They are pretty open about it because they’re close to achieving it. Trump has his issues but I believe he has the best interests of the country in mind. My problem with him he has a habit of stepping on his own accomplishments. For the Democrats ruth left the building a long time ago.
It doesn’t take much to sell out everything you may be once believed in. Bill Kristol is just one of many right now. Tucker, Candice, Megan Kelly, M.T Greene… Kinzinger was a Trumper, until he didn’t get the big job he wanted, then he had no problem switching sides.
Old enough to remember he was the Conservative King…living off his Dad’s legacy…New intellectual Bill Buckley…media darling…Now he is a self-aggrandizing, forgotten, bitter old man with TDS
Sadly, he had me fooled for a lot of years
There is a story about a fellow who sought out a renowned NY tailor for a new suit. He took delivery but returned the following day saying the right coat sleeve was too long. The tailor said everyone’s body is asymmetrical, so if he would just bend his arm a little it would take up the slack. So the fellow left. He retuned the next day with the left slacks leg too long. The tailor goes through the same drill just crook your left leg a bit. Two weeks later the man is in his new suit walking down the street like Boris Karloff’s mummy. Two guys on the sidewalk across the street see him. One says look at that poor crippled fellow. The other says yes, but imagine the talent of the tailor who was able to fit him in that wonderful suit.
Reading about Bill Kristol I couldn’t help but recall the quote during the Vietnam war that “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it”. Perhaps I was sheltered and naive growing up when I couldn’t understand how the Nazis got Jews to wear Stars of David, until the CDC got everyone to wear masks. Or why judges in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany facilitated oppression. What used to seem impossible in the U.S., now requires our attention.
It reminds me of another old joke about a family that loses their fortune. They say, “It happened gradually, then all at once.” That is how governments take over power. We all laughed when Obama said he was a Community Organizer. Not many knew what that meant. It wasn’t a phrase that was commonly used. People spend years studying how to do this. Our own CIA trains people to destabilize other governments, that is what is being done to ours. Our own freedoms are being used against us.
Trump plays the media and Dembulbs as his daily modus operandi on every angle. He tweets out his narcissistic attack and personal slams at his enemies never failing to bathe himself and his administration in self glory as he knows it is to their loathing, like an expert fisherman casting the bait in front of the fish. They fall for it every single time, it’s like watching an episode of Wiley Coyote, with Trump the Roadrunner. The one thing evident is that Trump is a Patriot that loves America, as a country we were well down a path of losing our country to a globalist group of criminals. They will say anything do anything using Socialism, Communism and Democracy as platforms for controlling their unwashed masses while picking our tax bones clean.
The suckers were the ones who believed Trump would make the economy better, to lower fuel and housing and food prices. To replace the Affordable Care Act with a better and less expensive plan. And those stupid people voted for Trump because of the obvious lies they so wanted to believe. They spend their days attacking everyone except the cause of their problems – the US Presidency has been captured by the oligarchs, both foreign and domestic and those on the Republican side of the Congress have sided with the oligarchs.
They are still smarter than the suckers who believed that Kamala Harris, who played in role in destroying the economy with Joe Biden, would somehow be capable of making it better.
I’m old enough and savvy enough to know that it takes time for Administration policy changes to occur and effect our daily lives. The economy is a massive conglomeration of market bubbles, popping and emerging as new markets. What Trump has tried to do with ten Democrats on his back and five RINOs around his legs will undoubtedly strengthen our economy and prices will reflect that stability. You will find out when America quits putting foreign interlopers ahead of citizens and makes elevating our own youth up with pride and a good education, the world will turn.
At the end of the Biden term the economy was in better shape than Trump left it, mainly by ending the pandemic that went unchecked under Trump to go on to kill one million Americans.
“Kristol [. . .] is now a vehemently anti-Trump writer.” (JT)
Kristol’s terminal TDS can be seen in his absurdly contradictory positions on U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
He was always a war hawk who staunchly supported both Iraq wars and agitated for attacking Iran.
But now that it’s Trump decimating that tyrannical regime, suddenly Kristol is a staunch critic.
This is Trump’s Reichstag fire. The pretext for the ballroom.
Wow, that ballroom must have really angered you guys. News flash, the project is moving forward. What was the rub, that it was paid for through donations? Or is it enough that Trump was doing it? I have no doubt that the next liberal president will have it torn down purely out of spite that Trump built it. That would perfectly sum up the left.
Agree.
The first act of the next President should be to bulldoze that gaudy and tasteless monument to the oligarchy.
Except the next president won’t be a democrat because there are no democrats anymore. I’m afraid your TDS will remain untreated for life!
TDS – Trump Dupes Stupid.
How ignorant can one be? If you had any real knowledge about the “Reichstag fire” – its consequences etc – you would not make stupid comments like this.
So it’s not an Epstein distraction?
No, not that either, it’s….TDS! It affects your perceptions of events. Fortunately it’s all in YOUR head.
I bet this maniac had TDS too!
Well if a ballroom bothers you so, you might just be a 31 year old adult living with his parents like this manic with guns and knives.
dems have a lot of suicidal maniacs it seems. Imagine rooting for suicidal maniacs to further your politics; That’s a political party that’s on the ropes.
Don’t you find it curious that trump hasn’t gone to one of these things?And forever and tonight, he decides to go, and nobody got hurt.They said somebody got hurt, and it deflected off of his bulletproof suit.I cannot believe that this is any different than butler pennsylvania. FAKE, STAGED, DISTRACTION, DISTRACTION, DISTRACTION!! WHAT WILL HE DO NEXT?? HOW FAR WILL HE GO???ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSH!T IT’S ALL ABOUT WHAT HE WANTS , AN FN BALLROOM !!!! That was his response at his press conference, this is why we need the BALLROOM!!! WHEN WILL THIS BE OVER???
So a guy from California decided to take one for the Democrat team, give up his freedom and spend years of his life in jail, just to stop the construction of the new ballroom? That makes sense
Or that a Secret Service agent getting shot in the chest, and saved only by his bulletproof vest, is “nobody got hurt”. And that this was done to build a ballroom that was already cleared by the Courts to move forward, and a project that no one cares about in the least?
The ballroom has not been cleared by the Courts.
Actually it has – left wing nuts lost on appeal. They may appeal to the Supreme court – but at this time it can move forward.
People will make sacrifices for a cause if they believe in it enough.
That’s why people join the military.
It might not be something that you would do, something that makes sense to you,
but it made sense to him.
So you believe he is more of a foot soldier for the cause, and not a lunatic? I don’t see why he couldn’t be both.
The real problem is the ones who caused him to believe in such idiotic ideas that made it make “sense” to his TDS-addled perceptions. This man is clearly motivated by demons in his head. There was no “sense”, he’s mentally ill. And the dems love to use those less fortunate to further their ends and are not above arms against their fellow Americans. Please dems, embrace your urge to lionize this guy, it’s the move that tracks lefty logic right into the dustbin of history.
Recall the number of Republicans literally climbing the walls to get into the Capitol building. Talk about a bunch who lost their minds.
Technically, this would be fodder to support the building of an American Fortress for the President.
It may have been to stop Trump from further damaging the world and US economies with that stupid war that Netanyahu started which Trump cannot escape.
Anon: Please identify yourself so you can get help. You need to check your medications. You are either hallucinating or plain ignorant.
Anonymous, what I find curious is that you think the assassination attempt was staged as some kind of distraction from something or other. Both MS and CNN are reporting that the event was real. All those little conspiracy theories running around in your head must be really difficult to live with. The voices that you constantly hear keep you in a constant state of fear. If Trump wasn’t around to engage your ire it would just be something else that you would find that would satisfy the feeding of your wrath. One way or the other the voices would still be there regardless of the presence of reality. Even now the voices are telling you that you must respond so that the voices might be protected. Even now they say, Anonymous you can’t let Thinkitthrough get away with that. Regaining control of your thoughts is not easy but it can be done. Don’t listen to the voices.
Perhaps, but did he shampoo his hair? Further, did he use conditioner with proper application? Answer me that, and did he rinse twice still resulting in dry spli ends?!
I rest my case…
Seek professional help.
The TDS clinic is several websites over….This one only acerbates TDS.
Ah, no. Republicans were not attempting “to degrade liberal democracy and move America toward a post-liberal order.”
Illiberal Democrats are actively attempting to degrade our Republic and move American toward a illiberal totalitarian state with one party rule, theirs. They have said it out loud. Not just once but many times as the good professor points out. When they say they want to pack the court to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” believe them.
I wonder if it has ever occurred to them we just might be as ruthless if not more to preserve our Republic from their illiberal one party, totalitarian state?
Even threw death threats! Another mental breakdown?
What death threat? And you do realize I knew you would be simple enough to go there? Kinda like how I set up traps, you take the bait and I spring the trap.
We can pack the court too! Pass laws that strengthen the Constitution and the Republic. Pass voter ID laws, same day in person voting, limited mail in votes. Really like to see something done about gerrymandering that neither side can take advantage. OldManFromKS seems to have some pretty good ideas.
Maybe you shouldn’t be setting traps in the first place.
It is mean.
Is it mean if you are not bright enough to see what I am doing?
LOL. Nice one upstate
Would you scam an elderly woman out of her savings and blame her for being so gullible?
Of course not.
But a annony troll on the good professor’s blog?
Of course.
Would you use an elderly woman’s name to make illegal campaign contributions under and use as a massive money laundering operation?
time to start investingating people like Bill Kristol
Sedition is the incitement of discontent, rebellion, or violence against a state or its authority, typically involving speech, writing, or conspiracy to disrupt or overthrow the government. Key elements include the intent to cause insurrection and active attempts to disturb public peace.
That is all protected speech. Laws against “sedition” are automatically invalid.
Trump is media savvy.
He knows what plays well to the cameras.
Chanting “USA! USA!” was probably his idea.
It was all planned.
you are a lying idiot
Democrats are mentally ill and HATE AMERICA
Sounds like a Blue Anon conspiracy theory.
By a nut (teacher) from California.
Why would a mechanical engineer with a MS degree in computer science be teaching HS? I wonder if he could not pass the Engineering State board exams, FE and PE.
Caltech graduate, BSME, MSCS. Not whom I’d expect.
Last night, the President and the cable TV news covering the WHCD demonstrated how freedom of speech self-moderated by responsible speech upholds the highest ideals of the 1st Amendment — and achieves the best possible outcome in a crisis.
When I think of how things could have gone seriously awry if the lone wolf attack had been reported with an overlay of the usual paranoid infowarfare and speculative grievances, things could be really bad this morning.
The media could have sought out protesters hero-worshipping Cole Tomas Allen in a redux of Luigi Mangione.
The President could have overreached — suspending some Constitutional rights by declaring a national emergency justified as “the only way to respond to the 3rd assassination attempt in 22 months”.
Instead, the attack was framed and reported responsibly, perhaps because for once the reporters themselves felt threatened by violent chaos — it’s very different than reporting and opinionating from a safe distance. The President behaved Presidential and completely above the fray — his candor and humanity at the press conference were a pinnacle of authenticity and reserve under stress. There was zero overreaction. He took responsibility by calmly explaining that the mantle of national leadership carries risk of assassination, and that it’s the same or worse in other countries. He credited law enforcement with making all the right response moves, while correctly pointing out that a hotel venue is not all that secure to begin with. He gently alluded to the new White House Ballroom as much more secure for hosting such events once it is completed.
Mind you, I’m crediting MSNOW and CNN with abruptly dropping their constant anti-Trump framing at the moment the Secret Service rushed the ballroom aisle yelling to “get down stay down”. They reported responsibly from that point on. In the presser later at the WH, the President praised the all media for reporting responsibly.
As a result, the nation can today exhale, and go forward with a temporary spurt of resilience and cohesion. It seems enough of us agree that political violence as planned by Cole Allen is much worse than the things we’re disagreeing over. Supreme Court packing will be eventually dismissed as a bad idea – once it’s militant protagonists realize that the “finality” they hope to achieve through it is a mirage….wishful thinking.
The point being, our nation weathered a crisis last night the result of responsible press freedom, which is quite different from press freedom exploited to induce fear and loathing.
Well, maybe. The responsible media is still playing the, “we have no idea who this shooter was targeting” baloney but for about hour or so, the media acted professionally. Somehow that doesn’t convince me that journalism isn’t dead.
pbinca, BS. I am now watching george stephanopoulos blaming poor secret service and security for last night. He critically asks Todd Blanche if King Charles will be safe on his planned visit this week. So typical to twist the issue.