Reforms to Court will ensure it protects the rights of all Americans, not only corporations and radical mega donors
Plan includes transparency, recusal rules, terms limits, & Court expansion
End Citizens United // Let America Vote Action Fund today endorsed a set of policies to reform the Supreme Court to ensure it protects the rights of all Americans, not just corporate interests and radical mega donors.
ECU // LAV Action Fund Director Adam Smith announced the organization’s support for court reform at Demand Justice’s Ideas Conference today.
“Corporate and billionaire-backed dark money groups have spent years raising at least $600 million to radicalize the judiciary and pack the Supreme Court with extremist ideologues who are imposing a radical and anti-freedom agenda on the American people. That investment is paying off, as the captured Court continues to hand down decisions that favor corporate interest and radical mega donors. The Court is decimating women’s rights, worker’s rights and civil rights. It is preventing action on climate change and gun violence. It is threatening democracy by gutting the Voting Rights Act and allowing a flood of unlimited and undisclosed money into our politics,” said ECU // LAV Action Fund Director Adam Smith. “We need to restore balance to the Court and End Citizens United is calling for the necessary reforms to make sure we have a Court that protects the freedoms of all Americans.”
The court reform proposal includes:
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Strengthen recusal rules and add more transparency on Justices’ financial holdings. The public deserves transparency and accountability from the Court. If they won’t adopt their own code of ethics, Congress must require it (as reflected in: Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, S. 4177, H.R. 7706; Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, S. 4188, H.R. 7647).
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Expose the dark money spent on judicial nominations by passing the DISCLOSE Act. Adding this transparency will also expose money spent creating the pipeline of right-wing cases and the special interests behind the friend of the court briefs defending them (as reflected in DISCLOSE Act, S. 4822, H.R. 1334).
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Term limits for future justices. Term limits for future justices would reduce the partisan influence and temperature of nomination debates and campaigns (as reflected in Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act, H.R. 5140; Supreme Court TERM Act, H.R. 8500, S. 4706).
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Expand the number of justices on the Court. Republicans have spent decades packing the court with extreme ideologues who have severely weakened our democracy. Adding four justices to match the number of federal district courts will restore balance and ensure we have justices committed to serving all the people (as reflected in the Judiciary Act, S. 1141, H.R. 2584).
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