A few years ago, before Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were sworn in and the possible repeal of Roe v. Wade became a very real threat, few could have imagined that the entire legitimacy of the Supreme Court would come under fire. Now, things feel much different—but few seem to agree on what a fair plan of action would be to ensure the nation’s highest court remains fair and balanced. Just last week, Pres. Biden’s bipartisan Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States released its final report, which noted widespread public support for term limits but pushed back on the concept of “court packing.”

On this week’s episode of The Brief, hosts Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld discussed what’s at stake when it comes to maintaining the status quo of the U.S. Supreme Court. Guest Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, joined the show to offer perspective from his organization, which has done a huge grassroots organizing push and also worked with elected officials to expand the court. As Demand Justice’s mission states, the organization is working to “[build] a progressive movement to restore the ideological balance and legitimacy of our federal courts by advocating for court reform and progressive, diverse judges.”

With 2022 just around the corner and the stakes getting higher and higher, Eleveld laid out a case for making voting rights Democrats’ top priority. As she explained, “If we could bottle [our energy] up and put that energy somewhere, I would put all of it into voting rights, personally. You know, getting something passed that helps insulate our democracy from what Republicans are trying to do across the nation in Republican-controlled states.”

After bringing on Fallon, the hosts kicked off the interview by asking him how court reform is doing in Congress. As he explained, progress has been slow, but steady:

The commission has finally concluded its work this month, and the kindest thing to be said about it is that it’s over, and that, quite surprisingly, it has produced some people who said that the process of considering these issues over the last six months has actually caused them to come out for adding seats [to the Supreme Court] … I think there are going to be more people from the commission that come out in their individual capacities and say the same thing. In any case, the commission has been happening. But while most of the media attention has been on that, there have been advocacy organizations like Demand Justice that have been working this issue to try to garner cosponsors for legislation that’s been introduced in both the House and the Senate called the Judiciary Act, which adds four seats to the Supreme Court. We’ve made slow but steady process. Pretty much every week, we’re getting 2-3 new lawmakers signing onto the bill … We’ve been organizing constituent meetings. It’s a very laborious process.

Fallon acknowledged that court reform is a relatively new idea that will take time to become a concept the general public is aware of and compared the process to growing support for abolishing the filibuster a few years ago: “Elie Mystal … was one of the people who first put this idea on the table, and he was writing op-eds about this three or four years ago. And to go from people like Elie writing about it to having a bill in Congress that has 50 cosponsors in the House, that has the endorsement of SEIU, I think that this is moving rather fast by Washington standards. Not as fast as I would like, but relatively quickly by Washington standards. I liken it to pretty much where we were on the filibuster about two years ago.”

Fallon’s organization, Demand Justice, tries to communicate with what he sees as both sides of this conversation: lawyers who either litigate at white shoe law firms or serve in constitutional law professorships at big institutions like Harvard and Yale, and regular grassroots activists on the left who may little bit out of their depth and aren’t quite sure about whether these legal arguments hold water.

Moulitsas asked if there was any chance for court reform to happen, realistically. “Is there any chance this happens without us winning bigger majorities in Congress?”

There is a deadline we are running up against, Fallon noted, acknowledging the proverbial elephant int he room:

The American public is feeling a greater sense of urgency after watching the actions of the Supreme Court over the past few months, as many latent fears seem increasingly likely to become reality. As Fallon noted, even during the height of the battles over Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmations, many felt that Roe would not be overturned and that there was not a serious threat to it: “They thought there was a lot of ‘crying wolf’ happening.”

But with what has happened recently, Fallon said, “I think all that support that is right now below the surface but not really galvanized will finally galvanize. I don’t think it’ll just be Planned Parenthood activists out in the street … it’s something that’s not only going to be happening in Texas and Mississippi … trigger laws where if Roe falls, it [reactivates] the [state] abortion ban. I think there is potential for people to be animated. Whether that translates to anything real, any real change on this issue [depends on if we can get] a show of political courage from the Democrats.”

The trio also discussed how Pres. Biden can insert himself into this fight and assert his power as president. Fallon noted that the president does well when he can paint himself as a foil against an enemy: “He needs villains [to go up against]. I want to see him take on the Supreme Court.”

You can watch the full episode below:

YouTube Video

It is also available to stream on the following platforms:

<strong><a>Apple Podcast</a></strong>
<strong><a>Spotify</a></strong>
<strong><a>Stitcher</a></strong>
<strong><a>Google Podcast</a></strong>