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CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams issued a stark warning to Democrats this week that any future Supreme Court nomination by President Biden could be compromised if Republicans win back control of the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.
In a Monday op-ed, Williams called on Democrats to take "aggressive steps" to stop the potential derailing of the confirmation process, including suggesting they pack the Supreme Court in order to "weaken the votes" of Republican nominated justices and "serve as a check" on the blocking of Democrat nominees.
The Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
IN NEW BOOK, SEN. MIKE LEE WARNS DEMS' COURT-PACKING TALK COULD ALTER HISTORY IN UNANTICIPATED WAYS
Williams noted that the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson last week could be one of the few remaining judicial appointments of Biden's presidency considering some predictions that Republicans will win back the Senate in November. He argued Democrats "shouldn't get too excited" over Jackson since Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hasn't said whether he would hold hearings on any future Biden nomination if Republicans regain control.
He claimed that McConnell choosing not to hold hearings on a Biden nominee would be his "latest ruthless breach of the norms of government," and that it would cause Americans to lose further confidence in the political independence of the country's courts.
Williams argued that each time McConnell had "blown up the intentions of the framers," he'd been rewarded, such as when he successfully blocked former President Obama's nomination of now-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, and that it would be "perfectly rational behavior" for McConnell to try and do so again.
"The question for McConnell's colleagues and the American public is whether they are willing to stop complaining about McConnell's behavior and take aggressive steps to stop it," he wrote.
Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
WHITE HOUSE SAYS COURT-PACKING ISN'T JUST ADDING MEMBERS: ‘COURT-PACKING BY COURT-PICKING’
Williams then oddly claimed there was "a glaring flaw" in Republican arguments that Democrats were the ones who originally "broke" the confirmation process with the contentious hearings of Robert Bork in 1987 and Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991.
"At least both Bork and Thomas got hearings," he said, without mentioning the poor treatment by Democrats of both nominees throughout the process.
Williams stated that it "should surprise no one" McConnell wasn't being open about whether he would allow the confirmation process of another Biden nominee to go forward, considering what happened to Garland and the slow-walking of lower court nominees through the end of Obama's second term.
"To be clear, McConnell's conduct, if norm-busting, is perfectly within the rules," he wrote. "The solution for Democrats, then, is to devise equally lawful, but equally bare-knuckled, means of removing the incentive for the behavior."
"For instance, increasing the size of the Supreme Court might be controversial, but would serve as a check on McConnell's aggressive blockade (both past and almost certainly future) of Democratic nominees. Doing so would effectively weaken the votes of the nominees McConnell rammed through the process," he added.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, walks to the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Williams claimed that "taking aggressive steps" as a response to McConnell was less about stacking the court with liberal justices and "more about resetting the confirmation process," however, his subsequent argument that the two parties could work together to return a sense of normalcy to the process didn't address what would be a court already leaning in Democrats' favor.
"Like Pavlov's dog salivating upon hearing a bell ringing, Mitch McConnell shouldn't be faulted for reacting to stimulus in a predictable and natural way. It's just time that Democrats and voters got aggressive about taking away the bell," Williams wrote.
A vast majority of Americans don't seem to agree with William's sentiment on packing the court. In three separate polls conducted last year, only 31%, 32% and 39% of respondents said they supported increasing the size of the court.