Under the guise of “court reform,” the Biden-Harris plan seeks to impose term limits and other rules on the Supreme Court in violation of the Constitution. Similarly, Schumer filed a bill in late July to strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction to decide certain cases. 

Both efforts have one aim: to convince the justices to bend to the political will of the Left or lose their independence until more reliable Democratic-appointed justices arrive.  

The American Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties Union once warned us about the dangers of dismantling judicial independence. The ABA spent decades fighting for judicial independence, arguing that “preserving and protecting the independence of the federal judiciary has long been a core mission and concern of the ABA.” The ACLU usually takes strong stands against jurisdiction-altering legislation that affects the Supreme Court, once saying, “Our system of checks and balances demands an independent federal judiciary that ensures that laws passed by Congress are constitutional.”

So, where are they now?

Unfortunately, after a handful of Supreme Court decisions with which they disagree, these powerful special interest groups are either silent or complicit in this coup against our democracy. The ACLU even expressed support for the Democrats’ crusade in a recent statement, saying, “The ACLU therefore supports reforms, such as term limits and ethics rules.”

It’s amazing how quickly groups can sell out their principles when they lose.

The foundation of our democracy is the separation of powers spelled out in the United States Constitution. There is a vertical separation of powers between the federal government and the state governments known as federalism. But there is also a horizontal separation of powers between Congress, the president, and the Supreme Court. No one branch may rule over the other.

For all the non-Generation X Americans curious how this all works, Schoolhouse Rock! has some nice programming conveniently stored on YouTube. The point of the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government is to restrain federal power, govern the passions of the mob (remember the response to COVID?), and provide checks and balances that keep power in the hands of the voters. 

For decades, the Left lauded judicial independence and claimed that anyone who so much as criticized the reasoning of judicial opinions too harshly threatened that independence and, indeed, democracy itself. The ACLU once believed that “court-stripping is inconsistent with the history and structure of our constitutional democracy, and, as shall be seen, poses a grave threat to the rights of all Americans.”

The public agrees. New polling shows that 87% of people believe “an independent judiciary is a crucial safeguard of our civil liberties.” By large majorities, they oppose the politicization of the courts. 

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In Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton emphasized, “The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution. By a limited Constitution, I understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to the legislative authority. … Limitations of this kind 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.”

More than 230 years later, people still know that our rights depend on a judicial branch that cannot be subjugated to the executive or legislative. The ABA and ACLU once believed that, too. 

Hiram Sasser is the executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute, a non-profit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all.