As the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case that could fundamentally change how elections are run in the U.S., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is sounding the alarm about extremist justices’ apparent intentions to stage a “judicial coup.”
On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Moore v. Harper, a case in which right-wing plaintiffs argue that the North Carolina Supreme Court did not have the jurisdiction to strike down gerrymandered maps that gave the GOP undue advantage in state elections. If the Supreme Court rules for the plaintiff, it could completely undermine the democratic process and empower politicians to draw gerrymandered election maps nearly unilaterally.
In response to news of the Moore case, Ocasio-Cortez said that it is time for political leaders to take decisive actions to stop the far right Supreme Court from further eroding Americans’ rights.
“We are witnessing a judicial coup in process,” she wrote. “If the President and Congress do not restrain the Court now, the Court is signaling they will come for the Presidential election next. All our leaders – regardless of party — must recognize this Constitutional crisis for what it is.”
“At this point we should be well beyond partisanship,” continued Ocasio-Cortez. “Members of Congress have sworn an oath to the Constitution. It is our duty to check the Court’s gross overreach of power in violating people’s inalienable rights and seizing for itself the powers of Congress and the President.”
In the wake of the most consequential and extremist SCOTUS term in modern history, Ocasio-Cortez has continually called for Democratic leaders to fight back against extremist Supreme Court justices with actions that meet the severity of decisions like the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Just in the past eight days, the Supreme Court has ruled to: (1) limit the enforcement of Americans’ Miranda rights; (2) shoot down a New York law that restricted the ability to carry concealed guns in public; (3) wrench bodily autonomy from millions of Americans who can get pregnant; (4) allow public school employees to lead students in prayer; and (5) severely limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate greenhouse gasses.
With the Moore case on the docket and extremist justices demonstrating their willingness to overturn long-held Court precedents, the Supreme Court’s next session starting in October is shaping up to be equally severe. Right-wing politicians have begun fantasizing about which rights they can target next since Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the Dobbs v. Jackson decision to overturn Roe that gay marriage and contraception should also be reconsidered in the wake of the decision on abortion rights.
In response to these rulings, Ocasio-Cortez has called for Supreme Court justices to be impeached. Lawmakers have accused at least three justices of lying in their confirmation proceedings; Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett all said that they would be willing to uphold precedents like Roe. Lawmakers say those three justices essentially lied under oath in order to secure their spot on the Supreme Court. Ocasio-Cortez has also called for Thomas to be impeached over his wife Ginni Thomas’s ties to the January 6 attempted coup.
“Catastrophic,” the New York progressive said in response to the Court’s EPA decision. “A filibuster carveout is not enough. We need to reform or do away with the whole thing, for the sake of the planet.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 130 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy