Progressives Want ‘Term Limits’ For Supreme Court Justices

supreme court term limits
Screenshot: YouTube Video, Rep. Ro Khanna YouTube Channel

Progressive Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna renewed his push to establish term limits for Supreme Court justices.

The announcement comes in response to last week’s Supreme Court ruling to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion at the federal level.

Khanna (D-CA) called on Biden to support a bill he reintroduced last year, which establishes 18-year term limits for Supreme Court Justices, while at the Nevada State Democratic Party Convention over the weekend.

He made a similar plea on Twitter.

“Nine unelected, elite lawyers with fancy degrees do not have the final word on interpreting the Constitution,” his speech reads. 

“The American people get to decide what the Constitution means. In a democracy, we the people get to decide what are fundamental rights and freedoms.”

The renewed interest in Supreme Court term limits serves as yet another example of where Democrats respond to political or policy losses not by arguing the merits, but by demanding the rules be changed.

RELATED: 5 American Institutions Democrats Want to Abolish Now That They Have Power

Progressives Demand Supreme Court Term Limits After Roe v. Wade Loss

The Supreme Court Term Limits Act, originally introduced in Congress by Ro Khanna in September of 2020 and reintroduced one year later, seeks to “fundamentally reframe the power of our nation’s highest court.”

The bill was introduced but has seen no other parliamentary action.

It would not apply to current Justices serving on the nation’s highest court.

The legislation currently has seven co-sponsors, all of whom are Democrats. They include:

  • Rep. Beyer, Donald S., Jr. (D-VA)
  • Rep. Lee, Barbara (D-CA)
  • Rep. Tlaib, Rashida (D-MI)
  • Rep. Blumenauer, Earl (D-OR)
  • Rep. Porter, Katie (D-CA)
  • Rep. Davis, Danny K. (D-IL)
  • Rep. Garamendi, John (D-CA)

RELATED: Rashida Tlaib: Don’t Like Abortion? ‘Maybe You Shouldn’t Want to Have Sex With Me’

Is Biden on Board?

Representative Tlaib, a far-left member of the ‘Squad,’ stands out as the lawmaker who once made the uber-cogent argument that if people don’t like abortion they “shouldn’t want to have sex with” her.

She made that statement at the same rally at which Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) famously threatened Supreme Court justices if they rule against abortion.

“This past year, I realized — my, my, my are they obsessed with our bodies, how we talk, how we look, what we stand for — I mean this type of policing of our bodies is so interconnected to all the social justice movements all around the country,” Tlaib said at the time.

“You know I, in the legislature, in the Michigan legislature for six years, used to say to people, ‘Yo yo, you know what? You’re so freakin obsessed with what I decide to do with my body, maybe you shouldn’t even want to have sex with me,’ or with you, or with any woman,” she said gesturing wildly.

As a candidate in 2020, President Biden said he was against expanding the Supreme Court or establishing term limits for justices because doing so “raises problems that are more damaging than the problem that exists.”

Will he continue to feel that way as the left urges him to take extreme action in the wake of Roe v. Wade being placed in the dustbin of history?

Biden established a commission last year to examine possible changes to the Supreme Court which described public support for imposing term limits.

Polls have indeed consistently shown public support for such a move. It’s odd though, that Democrats tend to only push hard for changes when the court doesn’t rule in their favor.

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Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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