After the Virginia Supreme Court rejected the results of the recent Democratic effort to effectively wipe out Republican representation in the state, Democratic pundits and activists have latched onto a proposal by Michigan State Law Professor Quinn Yeargain to gut the court by forcing the retirement of the current justices, appointing liberal activists, and then reversing the opinion. It is extremely telling that some are pushing the raw muscle play to retake power in Washington, particularly in light of the calls to pack the United States Supreme Court once the party is back in control.
Professor Yeargain declared on Substack that there is “a simple – and lawful – solution: Send the entire court into early retirement.” Under this plan, Virginia Democrats would adopt an absurdly low age for retirement in a gut-and-pack scheme: Yeargain suggested that they could set “the mandatory retirement of justices and judges after they reach a prescribed age, beyond which they shall not serve, regardless of the term to which elected or appointed.”
The current retirement age is 73.
Yeargain dismisses that number as “arbitrary” and says that the Democrats need only to “Make it 54 for Supreme Court justices – the age of the youngest justice, Stephen McCullough, who joined the majority opinion – and make it take effect immediately.”
The fact that such an abusive plan is described as “simple” captured the logic of an age of rage. I recently wrote a column in which I warned that “the reversal of fortunes for the party could lead to an even more dangerous agenda” with Democrats pushing for packing the Supreme Court.
In the unlikely chance that this could pass the General Assembly (I am assuming that there remain some things that certain Democratic members just will not do), it would be difficult to engineer before the midterm elections, given the likely challenges. However, it is the inclination of some to try such measures that is chilling.
I noted that Virginia showed how “an independent court can unravel the best-laid plans.” Various politicians and professors have advocated radical changes to the political system to ensure the party retains power indefinitely. They acknowledge, however, that the Court could likely declare these moves as unconstitutional unless they first take control through a packing scheme.
The new proposal for the sack-and-pack scheme is even more cynical and brutal. Ironically, the Virginia Supreme Court declared the redistricting effort by the Democrats as not only unconstitutional but “wholly unprecedented in Virginia’s history.”
It characterized the state’s position as “a story of the tail wagging the dog that has no tail.”
The response of Yeargain and Democratic activists is now to suggest just shooting the dog and adopting a type of politically modified puppy bred to serve.
Such radical proposals are being rationalized with open disinformation. Pundits regularly fail to mention that the Democrats previously gerrymandered states such as Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York while claiming the right to win by any means necessary.
Others just deny reality. Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Kaine) lashed out at the Virginia Supreme Court and demanded to know why they waited so long to rule on whether there were fundamental flaws in the Democratic plan.
Kaine either never read the opinion or sought to mislead voters. The opinion has an entire section on the timing, noting that it was the Democrats and the Commonwealth that demanded that the Court wait to rule on the merits until after the election. After “successfully” seeking that delay, they are now accusing the Court of something untoward in doing what they demanded.
Notably, the sack-and-pack scheme sets aside any pretense of principle. The Democrats would simply adopt a ridiculously low retirement age for the sole purpose of populating the court with reliable and robotic justices. The fact that an academic and various pundits would expressly float such an idea is another chilling reminder of the growing radicalization on the left.
These are the “new Jacobins” discussed in my book Rage and the Republic, figures echoing the radical concepts or means used in France before what became known as “The Terror.” “By any means” has become a rallying cry on the left.
Law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale have called for the nation to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.” Last December, they published a column titled “It’s Time to Accept that the US Supreme Court is Illegitimate and Must be Replaced.”
Democratic strategists know that the public will not approve of such measures.
Democratic strategist James Carville stated matter-of-factly, “They’re going to recommend that the number of Supreme Court justices go from nine to 13. That’s going to happen, people.” He added recently, “Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”
What is striking about the Virginia proposal is that it is being pushed so openly and unapologetically. Democrats realize that they have alienated half of Virginia already. Republicans and independents are not likely to forget that every major Democrat in their state, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, sought to erase their very political existence. It is not partisan, it is personal.
In destroying bridges to cross-over voters in the purple state, what is left is raw political brutality. You must dump-and-pump in seeking radical measures to grab power. In the process, no court or institution is sacred in the cause of social and political change.
It is all part of the Nike School of Constitutional Law: Just do it.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
This column ran on Fox.com.
There would be no democrat party if not for the TDS afflicted.
Ah the legal illuminati are going true Soviet Style – purge (by any means necessary) and then put the proper STOOGES in place to accomplish the “peoples will” so true enlightenment can be achieved even by the lowest IQ comrades! Oh and if doesn’t work then let’s just go straight to thug street violence for any comrades who don’t agree with the reasonable socialists, right?
Commies been trying to take down the USA a long time but Trump was right; “America will never be a socialist country”
Sorry commies!
Are you out of your —-ing mind? Read Article 1, Section 8, and the absolute right to private property in the 5th Amendment. America set out on its path to communism under Lincoln in 1860 and ended up with $39 trillion in debt and all of these unconstitutional communist agencies and programs today:
Admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, PBS, NPR, Fed, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
America and Americans were supposed to be maximally free, while the government was to be severely limited and restricted.
Meritocracy doesn’t work for those without merit.
That is what DOGE did. That is what Hegseth is currently doing to the military. That is what Trump did to the Kennedy Center board of directors.
I have been saying this type thing will come for the past twenty-five years. People used to think it an eccentricity, but now I see it coming within the decade. May God have mercy!
Law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale have called for the nation to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”
Right, and med schools should reclaim America from healing, Business schools should reclaim America from commerce, vet schools should reclaim America from animals, dental schools should reclaim America from teeth, beauty schools should reclaim America from cosmetics, and all graduate schools should reclaim America from academic inquiry.
And these people teach at Harvard and Yale? Wow.
Secession is prohibited because secession is not prohibited.
Lincoln threw the baby out with the bathwater; he threw the Constitution out with reprehensible slavery.
All Lincoln had to do was pass legislation to abolish slavery.
He couldn’t; he deferred to dictatorship.
Lincoln engaged in “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Lincoln started America on the path to progressivism-cum-socialism-cum-communism-cum-chaos-cum-anarchy, the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” the “dictatorship of the majority,” and the “dictatorship of the poor.”
In a society of laws, the laws must be strictly adhered to.
Secession was and remains fully constitutional; Lincoln, in his entirety, must be rescinded, and America again placed squarely on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, 1789.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court; it has a monumental endeavor of repeal and rectification awaiting it.
Actual Americans deserve their Constitution and their freedom back.
The really frightening thing is that the partisan divide is so great that there might be a majority that would vote for these people! The radicals now control the votes of half the country. The extreme partisans know that once they are voted in it will be too late so that no matter even if people oppose the changes, the radicals are figuring out how to keep future votes from effecting their hold on power. This is the playbook for authoritarian regimes and actors throughout history and it is incredible to me that so many cannot see what is being planned, or if they see it, they think it justified and actually WANT this! We can, I guess, all repent in leisure if this age old plan of overthrowing the constitutional order is accomplished so that raw power becomes the norm.
We have gone so far down the road of demonizing much of the country in order to justify “extreme” measures that it may be too late to keep these Jacobins from destroying this shining city on a hill.
Horse manure. That’s what they want you to think they want you to think it’s 5149 for the Democrats or 6040 for the Democrats. Again that’s horse maneuver. It’s more like 8020 Conservative. And most conservatives tote. The commi’z in America want a revolution
Once uttered words of a young man on an airplane come to mind. Let’s roll.
MAGAA1st
11b
The dems control the votes of half…no, it’s appearance only.
The Law:
Article XII, § 1 (VA Constitution): Failed the “intervening election” requirement; the first vote occurred after 2025 voting started.
Va. Code § 30-13: Violated the 90-day public notice mandate prior to early voting.
Special Session Scope: Improperly added the amendment to a session not authorized to handle it, making the first passage invalid.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As goes the U.S. Constitution, so goes the Virginia Constitution:
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what [their powers] forbid.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
I think Virginia should just accept the court decision and move on and not go forward with proposals to appeal the case or this early retirement proposal.
CC, I think the same thing.
Concerned Citizen,
What you suggest sounds like common sense. Based off the words and actions as the good professor points out, that is something the leftist Democrats are in short supply.
I think Virginia should simply not allow people to vote and just let Trump decide who he wants to run the state.
“Make it 54 for Supreme Court justices . . . and make it *take effect immediately*.” (emphasis added)
Good luck with that.
That harebrained scheme immediately triggers a *federal* lawsuit (at minimum, ex post facto). Which, at minimum, then takes so long to reach SCOTUS that his wishful “take effect immediately” becomes moot.
It wouldn’t be ex post facto law. For one thing because it’s not criminal law. For another, because it’s not even ex post facto. It doesn’t invalidate anyone’s past service, it merely requires them to retire immediately.
The problem with it is the equal protection clause. It discriminates against those over 54, with no rational basis.
“Just do it” is a borrowed term. From lemmings as they get airborne running off the cliff.
Yeargain is not qualified to make such crazy assertions. On his MSU Bio he uses pronouns, He/They! Someone who is disconnected from reality should not be a professor at a major university or any!
Isn’t it time to simply outlaw the Democrat Party?
Any such law would be challenged in court. Guess who will rule on its constitutionality? The Virginia Supreme Court. All Justices could participate under the rule of necessity, which basically says that if all the judges on a court must recuse, then none of them have to.
It would be challenged in federal court under the equal protection clause.
This ahole Professor considers himself an intellectual???? He is way overpaid.
Your thoughtful rebuttal has given me much to think about.
‘. . . once the party is back in control.’
The only thing in control is their hubris. Newsflash: the majority of us want nothing to do with your insane version of governance, dems. Take a hint, and take the L.
It’s at the point they are like a drunken a**hole at a party forcing themselves on a woman who has already said, ‘No!’, five times. They think this is appealing to sane people? Oh. That’s right. They are also narcissists and don’t even see other people.
It is becoming clear that American law schools have replaced and repacked their faculties with activists rather than legal scholars. So, next they may measure hiring practices upon quotas of race, gender, trans, nonbinary and every other manner of creature walking about.
In a slight change of venue, can we expect to see the Catholic Bishops gutting the College of Cardinals, citing corruption or lack of purity, and repacking it with with their own “activist” kind?
Stunts like this need to become a campaign issue across the country. It’s clear the Democrats are only about seizing and maintaining political power, with no real interest in providing good policy and governance to citizens. The mask is off and the face it covered gets more hideous every day.
@Charles
It really does. And given power and communism are literally all the left are fighting for anymore tells me there is no vision, they are now indeed, simply, insane. The masks haven’t come off, they’ve been completely vaporized; there is no backtracking for them.
Charles Martell,
Right!
Look at what they do run on: Race. Taxing billionaires/millionaires/soon to be the middle class. Protecting criminal illegals. Failed green energy polices. Getting Trump. Packing the SC. Gerrymandering more so than they already have. And “Just Do it!” to ensure one party rule. Theirs.
Now, this is just another example of their drive for that one party rule.
The mask is off and we see the totalitarian monster underneath.
Just today, annony tried to tell us PT articles and columns were “slop,” to be found in the soup isle.
Yet, here again, we have illiberal Democrats, ignoring their own state Constitution and laws, attempting desperate acts to ensure they and only they will win elections again.
“Kaine either never read the opinion or sought to mislead voters.”
I would guess, both.
We owe PT a debt of thanks for pointing out illiberal Democrats attempts to undermine the Constitution, the Republic and to force one party rule on all of us. Theirs.
Oddly, if Virginia went 100% Democratic Party it would not ensure the they and only they would win “elections.” Sure, within the state, but on a national level the Republicans seats for Republican candidates that are being added via mid-decade redistricting will barely be offset.
Since you clearly know that the Republicans are looking to gain 2/3rds majorities in the House and Senate and will not challenge Trump, you also know that Trump will become a functional single-party autocrat with no opposition to any hare-brained idea that the Heritage Foundation puts into that empty head of his.
The bloody work of eternal radicalism continues apace.
Back on topic, it is frightening that this professor is teaching our kids.
When the judiciary is blatantly used to *force* a partisan ideology on others, it is no longer a trusted, objective judiciary. Justice is no longer “blind”, but is a partisan exercise of power. We have now obviously crossed over into that territory.
OFF TOPIC (Fair Warning❗)
This is the best way to explain the implications of what’s going to happen this week (of May 11th 2026) with Kevin Warsh’s Full Senate Confirmation.
The consequences of “irrational exuberance” of: the Fed, The Government, and the People are going to be paid.
Google AI: (string: Kevin Warsh’s Full Senate Confirmation date )
As of May 10, 2026, Kevin Warsh has not yet received a final full Senate confirmation vote, but it is scheduled for the week of May 11, 2026. The Senate Banking Committee voted 13-11 along party lines to advance his nomination on April 29, 2026, aiming for confirmation before Jerome Powell’s term ends on May 15.
Committee Action: The Senate Banking Committee approved his nomination on April 29, 2026.
Next Step: Full Senate vote expected during the week of May 11, 2026.
Deadline: Jerome Powell’s term as Fed Chair expires May 15, 2026.
Note: The Senate Banking Committee held his nomination hearing on April 21, 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warsh
—
Regardless of who would be the next Federal Reserve Chair, the Economic Apocalyptic storm of Servitude will come to bare upon all of the U.S. and Partners.
Kevin Warsh has confirmed the intentions of the Fed’s program basis going forward: ‘Financial Repression’
The U.S. Debt is teetering at the $39 trillion mark. Of course the powers to be in D.C. could let this go on to Infinity (Infinite Debt). The reality is that the rest of the World isn’t going to play along with that fantasy. So sooner or later the Fed is going to have to reel it in, thus the stage is set for the program of Financial Repression.
If your Old, you have been through this before (being ‘stuck’ for decades), if you are young (60 or less) then get to a safe position (financially).
Interest rates will/may come down in the next 8 months, because that’s what President Trump wants the Fed to do as He want to stimulate the economy and make his time on the throne shine (in Irrational Exuberance). The Fed may or may not abide, but if they do then invest in a House on a 30 fixed mortgage at 4% or lower if you can get it. If you already own a home that re-fi at a 30 fixed mortgage at 4% or lower.
What the Fed is going to do, will squeeze the average Citizen of their money, if you don’t get into a fixed position now.
The Fed’s fixer is in with Kevin Warsh’s Full Senate Confirmation this week. -It affects all of Us-
This video explains the squeezing process of how the Fed does this:
The New Fed Chair’s Plan to Quietly Cancel YOUR Mortgage
Refs.:
Repressed memories: Financial repression past and future
Ben Steel, Richard Murrall, Simon Wan Aug 29 2025
[Link] blackrock.com/institutions/en-us/insights/thought-leadership/fiscal-repression
—
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
A Look Back at Financial Repression
The policies were gradually phased out in many advanced and emerging economies. Will they come back?
By John Mullin – Econ Focus ~ First Quarter 2021
[Link] richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2021/q1/economic_history
—
Financial Repression in the XXIst Century
Ricardo Reis – London School of Economics
PDF: [Link] personal.lse.ac.uk/reisr/papers/26-mundellfleming.pdf
2025 Mundell-Fleming Lecture on “Financial Repression in the 21st Century”
Join us on November 7 at 1:30 PM ET as the IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, delivers introductory remarks ahead of the 2025 Mundell-Fleming Lecture by Ricardo Reis on “Financial Repression in the 21st Century”, moderated by IMF’s Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas at the 26th Annual Research Conference.
November 7th 2025
[Link] youtube.com/watch?v=iS7o46jWdaw
—
Video Links:
The New Fed Chair’s Plan to Quietly Cancel YOUR Mortgage (Video/version 1)
[Link] youtube.com/watch?v=7QtT3OJpu5A
The New Fed Chair’s Plan to Quietly Cancel YOUR Mortgage (Video/version 2)
[Link] youtube.com/watch?v=MdQVZtII38k
Inflation Is A Choice: Kevin Warsh On Fixing The Federal Reserve | Hoover Institution
Has the Fed lost its way? Hoover visiting fellow Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, argues it has, and offers solutions on how to fix it.
Hoover Institution ~ May 28, 2025
[Link] youtube.com/watch?v=qVFEcg-RIAk
—
P.S.: That’s all I can do for you Kids. This week is going to change your Life for some time to come. The powers to be, Democrats and Republicans didn’t heed to common sense or warnings. Now the ‘Invisible Hand’ of Servitude and Oppression is upon You.
We know what it is (the Invisible Hand of Financial Repression), but there is no way to cure it. The pain and suffering will be taken as we pay the price for the Irrational Exuberance of the past (decades).
Many of us have spent our lives fighting this, but it is a tsunami of greed, manipulation, cheating, trickery, illusion, … that has taken us from within. The Demons of economics await, may God have mercy on your suffrage.
@OT
Once is off-topic, more than once is spamming, and it is very much troll behavior. Maybe start tour own blog with a comments section?
James, I read your comment posted here. They very often lack references and bibliography. The addendum post above refers to the References in the preceding post. This is due to the limiters of WordPress http links. It is not multiple spam it is ‘reference’.
Further I would ask you to read the references (papers) for your own benefit. Theses are written by highly educated Individuals that take their science seriously. They are serious treatise on our economic condition(s).
Jonathan can’t possibly cover every aspect of what happens under Our Constitutional Rotunda (Hence OT). The Wise here will read this Warning. I have done my part to Warn you & others (for their benefit). Alternately, what do I care what you are going to suffer should you not take the time to educate yourself about what you don’t see (the Invisible Hand).
I don’t care what will happen to you for your own ignorance , I care about Jonathan, his Crew, and Others on this Blog that want to learn and have insight to what is happening to their world. Off Topic is a benefit of diversity, that open your field of vision to what is going on Today.
Not like the narrow-minded Post, the majority of on-topic comments made here.
-READ- for your own sake.
Been seeing this kind of fear mongering since the early 2000s. I will bet my track record with the markets better than anything these yahoos have been saying for years.
Wrong ⬆️ website. STOP SPAMMING!!!!
Stitch this is exactly to right website to send the message (Free Speech). It a Warning to All (Not Spam – nothing being sold here).
We won’t worry about you Stitch, you’re going to continue to suffer anyway.
Read, you might just learn something.
Referencing wokepedia immediately disqualifies anything your writing about.
..how ‘dare’ you claim that ‘young’ is ’60 or less..’!!! ‘Age hath no number..’ is one of the 11th Commandments (not to be confused with ‘World War Eleven’ so popular now with The Radical Left..”) ..at any rate, please speak for yourself when it comes to defining who is young and who is old. Many over 60 are Still Young and are simply Blessed to have a Rich History that endows Wisdom.
Ok then, Social Security full-benefits hit at 67 years. Those born in 1960 and thereafter (Currently 65) will have the benefit-of-scraps as SS goes insolvent or replaced by Private Social Insurance and 401Ks etc…
My estimate is that if you are 60 now, you have an opportunity to get into position now with a 30/yr fixed <4% Home loan and take advantage of that until you are 90 years old. That all there is to say, because Inflation, Taxes and Fed manipulation are going to eat you alive. You won't be able to get ahead of this 'thing' (That's what the Experts are saying) – That said applies for the most all of Us.
Yeah, if your 60 you might be able to make out ok – That's all. This Debt problem is BIG (and I haven't even mentioned the CRE problem yet).
-60- Spoken for myself (I'm Older than that) – That's my opinion I may be wrong eighteenthhole, I wish them luck.
-READ-
Those of us who have been reading since the early 2000s have been planning our retirement as if SS will not be there at all or the pay out will be a pittance of what we put into it. Might pay the phone bill.