Congressional Democrats are mounting a retaliation effort against the Supreme Court on Friday after it declined to take up a restrictive Texas abortion bill and allowed it to go into effect late Wednesday night.
Progressive squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib introduced a bill to set an 18-year term limit on Supreme Court Justices and create a semi-annual nomination process that would give the Senate up to 120 days to confirm them.
Reps. Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee and Don Beyer are also leading the legislation, which was introduced on August 31.
The bill would allow the president to nominate justices in the first and third years of their term.
If Senators fail to weigh in on the nominee in the 120-day period, they would automatically be seated on the court.
In the latter half of former President Obama's second term, then-Majority Leader McConnell refused to allow a hearing for Obama SCOTUS pick Merrick Garland, citing the upcoming presidential election.
Current justices would be grandfathered into the new system. Newer justices forced to retire would be permitted to serve on lower courts.
It would also take power away from the president to appoint a new chief justice if the current person retires. Instead, the most senior justice would take the role.
A group of progressive lawmakers including Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib introduced legislation aimed at overhauling the Supreme Court nomination process
Reps. Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee and Don Beyer are also leading the legislation alongside Tlaib
Also, the Democrat-led Senate Judiciary Committee will open an investigation into the Supreme Court's refusal to take up the bill, committee chair Senator Dick Durbin announced Friday.
'This anti-choice law is a devastating blow to Americans' constitutional rights—and the Court allowed it to see the light of day without public deliberation or transparency,' Durbin said in the announcement.
'We must examine not just the constitutional impact of allowing the Texas law to take effect, but also the conservative Court’s abuse of the shadow docket.'
Texas's two senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, are on the committee.
Late on Wednesday night the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision not to block the law from going into immediate effect.
The law, known as the 'Texas Heartbeat Act', bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is normally after six weeks and before many women even know they are pregnant.
It makes no exceptions for rape or incest and allows Texans to report people, including Uber drivers, who help or take women to get abortions. The only exemption is if there is a danger to the woman's health.
Senator Dick Durbin announced his Judiciary Committee will probe the Supreme Court decision and blasted the court's 'shadow docket' decision-making
Both of the US senators from Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, are part of the committee investigating their state's abortion ban
Chief Justice John Robert's and the court's three liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer - dissented.
Sotomayor and Kagan wrote blistering opinions condemning the court's 'shadow docket' and blasting the decision as 'flagrantly unconstitutional.'
In her dissenting opinion on Wednesday Sotomayor accused the court's conservative majority of 'burying their heads in the sand.
'The Act is clearly unconstitutional under existing precedents,' the Obama appointee wrote. 'The respondents do not even try to argue otherwise. Nor could they: No federal appellate court has upheld such a comprehensive prohibition on abortions before viability under current law.'
Justice Kagan, also appointed by ex-President Obama, accused the Supreme Court majority of only hastily reviewing the case and then only 'barely bothers to explain its conclusion.'
Kagan blasted the court's 'shadow-docket decisionmaking' which she claims is responsible for increasingly 'un-reasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend' rulings.
'Shadow-docket' decisions are handed down with little or no explanation from the majority justices and without advanced notice from the court, according to Vox.
Arguments from lawyers and long, detailed briefings heard in high-profile landmark decisions like Roe v. Wade are rare in shadow-docket cases. Justices usually discuss them amongst themselves on a shorter timeline than normal.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan dissented. The other justices - all appointed by Republican presidents - allowed the law to stand. From left: Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, Stephen Breyer, Amy Coney Barrett, and Sonia Sotomayor
They are also usually announced late at night, typically on Fridays, when media immediate coverage is more infrequent.
Numerous shadow-docket court decisions have been wins for the Trump administration, including a 2020 ruling allowing then-President Donald Trump's border wall to be built and agreeing with a lower court's decision in favor of Trump's Remain in Mexico policy.
But Republican lawmakers are going after President Biden and House Speaker Pelosi for attempting to circumvent Texas' new law.
'For the second time in a month, Biden looks to defy and obstruct an order of the Supreme Court. First, to strip landlords of their property without due process of law. Now, to snuff out more babies’ heartbeats,' Rep. Dan Bishop said in a statement to DailyMail.com Friday.
Biden released a forceful statement Thursday directing the executive branch to undermine the Supreme Court after it refused to take up the case.
He ordered the White House Counsel's office to mount a response to the court's decision, guided by the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice.
Biden vowed to directly challenge the Supreme Court, by ordering the agencies to apparently circumvent the ruling and 'ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe.'
He asked the White House to look at 'what legal tools we have to insulate women and providers from the impact of Texas' bizarre scheme of outsourced enforcement to private parties.'
Republican lawmakers accused him of abusing his power.
Biden released a forceful statement ordering HHS, DOJ and the office of White House Counsel to look into federal avenues to expand abortion access for Texas women
In response to the Supreme Court decision Speaker Pelosi said she would bring legislation protecting abortion rights to the House floor for a vote when they return in just days
'Just last week, Democrats were calling for the expansion of the court as a result of a ruling over the eviction moratorium that did not go in their favor. This week it’s because the court came down on the opposite side of their radical, pro-abortion agenda,' Kansas Senator Roger Marshall told DailyMail.com.
'Whether it’s a federal takeover of elections, eliminating the filibuster, or packing the court, Democrats will stop at nothing to rig our system of government in their favor because they cannot win on merit alone,' Marshall wrote.
Rep. Andy Biggs wrote in a statement to DailyMail.com, 'President Biden is the most anti-life President in modern history. He continues to betray America’s founding principles by refusing to protect the right to life. Now he has ordered the federal government to attack a state that seeks to protect that most precious right.'
'This abhorrent act by the Biden administration is inhumane and an abuse of power. I will continue to fight alongside the pro-life community to defend the rights of the most vulnerable in our society.'
Rep. Jim Banks told DailyMail.com that Biden is the 'most radically pro-abortion president in American history.'
GOP House lawmakers Andy Biggs (left and Jim Banks (right) criticized Biden for his threat to circumvent the Supreme Court and Texas state law
'His administration has pushed abortion on pro-life states and organizations and exported abortions abroad, violating conscience rights and costing countless unborn lives.,' the Congressman said in a statement.
Banks added a prediction: 'On the bright side, this won’t be the last abortion case the Supreme Court hears this year.'
Pelosi panned the Supreme Court as 'cowardly' in a Thursday statement and vowed Congress would take up the Women's Health Protection Act which would 'enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America.'
The bill would prohibit states from imposing arbitrary requirements on abortion providers and what procedures can be used if both are on par with normal health care standards. It also would allow abortion nationwide without time limits 'prior to fetal viability' and even afterwards if the abortion provider deems the pregnancy would pose a risk to the patient's life or health.
While the move was lauded by a number of progressives, several Republican lawmakers vowed to vote against such a measure.
'Congress must be a voice for the voiceless. I am appalled by Speaker Pelosi’s decision. We all should be,' Illinois Rep. Mary Miller wrote on Twitter.
Mississippi House lawmaker Michael Guest accused Pelosi of undermining states' rights.
'Speaker Pelosi has already announced her plan to undermine states’ rights and attack Texas’s new abortion law,' he said in a statement. 'I will vote against any bill that would undermine states’ rights and the pro-life movement.'
Rep. Billy Long of Missouri said the legislation 'must be stopped.'
Justice Breyer wrote, 'The very bringing into effect of Texas’s law may well threaten the applicants with imminent and serious harm.'
Biden, the second Catholic president in US history, has been criticized by church officials in the past because his pro-choice stance goes directly against Catholic doctrine.
Vice President Kamala Harris joined Biden in bashing the court's decision and called it a 'bounty law.'
'This decision is not the last word on Roe v. Wade, and we will not stand by and allow our nation to go back to the days of back-alley abortions. We will not abide by cash incentives for virtual vigilantes and intimidation for patients,' Harris wrote in a Thursday statement.
'We will use every lever of our Administration to defend the right to safe and legal abortion—and to strengthen that right.'
Attorney General Merrick Garland reaffirmed the DOJ would take the matter up, stating: 'The Justice Department is deeply concerned about Texas SB8. We are evaluating all options to protect the constitutional rights of women, including access to an abortion.'
And members of Congress are also up in arms over the decision.
Progressive 'squad' members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush are leading calls to pack the Supreme Court after it declined to block the Texas abortion law in a 5-4 decision.
Ocasio-Cortez and Bush are leading renewed calls to expand the Supreme Court to tip its current conservative majority in the wake of the 5-4 ruling
Abortion rights supporters gather to protest Texas SB 8 in front of Edinburg City Hall on Wednesday
Ocasio-Cortez lashed out against the Supreme Court early Thursday morning over its refusal to block the law called on Democrats to 'abolish the filibuster and expand the court.'
In a Twitter post published just after midnight, the progressive lawmaker accused Republicans of overturning landmark case Roe v. Wade.
'Republicans promised to overturn Roe v Wade, and they have,' Ocasio-Cortez wrote. 'Democrats can either abolish the filibuster and expand the court, or do nothing as millions of peoples' bodies, rights, and lives are sacrificed for far-right minority rule.'
She added that it 'shouldn't be a difficult decision' for her colleagues.
Hillary Clinton invoked Roe v. Wade on Thursday and accused the Supreme Court of 'gutting' the 1973 case.
'Last night, the Supreme Court officially overturned five decades of settled law and permitted Texas' unconstitutional abortion ban to stand,' she wrote.
'Yes: They gutted Roe v. Wade without hearing arguments, in a one-paragraph, unsigned 5-4 opinion issued in the middle of the night.'
Cori Bush said the ruling embodied 'far-right extremism' on Wednesday.
'In the span of one week the Supreme Court forced 11 million households to face eviction and effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in the middle of the night.
'This is what far-right extremism looks like. We need to expand the court.'
The two squad members expressed outrage at the Supreme Court's ruling on Twitter
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