Eric Holder: It’s Time to Reform the Supreme Court
June 24, 2022
Washington, D.C. — Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court of the United States’ decisions in the cases, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen:
“This week, the Supreme Court cemented the fact that it is wildly out of touch with the American people and heretofore guiding legal principles. A significant majority of Americans agree that gun safety measures protect the constitutional rights and lives of our people, and that women should have the right to choose. Yet the Court’s majority – most of whom were nominated by Presidents who lost the popular vote – is forcing through its own particular and peculiar vision of America to make our communities less safe and to take away essential women’s rights. Mark my words, this radical Court majority will deliver more of the same.
“These decisions are a function of Court personnel and not legal principle. This is an extremely dangerous precedent.
“At its best, the Supreme Court has affirmed basic and fundamental rights that Americans have fought for, and which they have deserved: The right to choose. The right to marry the person you love, no matter their gender or race. The right for students to attend the school of their choosing, no matter their race. At its worst, the Court has done the opposite – minimizing people because of their race, restricting rights and centralizing control and decision-making among the powerful few. Today, the Supreme Court is at its worst. The Court’s majority has caustically reversed long-held precedent to give us a country where our daughters and granddaughters will have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers and where our gun violence problem is unnecessarily worsened.
“Make no mistake, Republicans have made it their goal for decades to turn our nation’s highest tribunal into another political tool to force their unpopular, minority policies onto the people. This week’s decisions partially accomplish that reprehensible goal and will be compounded – foreseeably and intentionally – by gerrymandered Republican state legislatures across the country, where politicians have passed consequential legislation that is directly at odds with the will of the voters. They are able to do this because they have actively diminished the power of the people to hold them to account for passing such unpopular measures. Now our nation’s highest court is following suit.
“The Supreme Court must be reformed in order to ensure that the Court serves the interests of the people instead of the interests of an extreme, minority faction. The idea of reforming the Court is not extreme; in fact, there is even one thing Chief Justice Roberts agrees with me on – term limits for justices. Now is the time for the people to engage in our electoral process and to reimagine, and restore, our democratic institutions so that they live up to our founding ideals – to ensure every American has a fair and consequential say in the direction of our democracy.”
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