Dhillon on 2020, SCOTUS Vacancy

Dhillon on 2020, SCOTUS Vacancy

Harmeet Dhillon

Harmeet Dhillon Appears on FBN’s ‘Varney & Company’ To Discuss 2020, SCOTUS Vacancy

According to Dhillon (Video Transcript):

Of course, it’s a terrible idea. When prior Democrats have attempted to float this most notably for FDR back in, after his re-election and his desire to push through the New Deal legislation, other Democrats put the brakes on it including his vice president, including many Democrat senators. Even in this situation, though the far extremists on the liberal side are pushing for this as liberal senators as Bernie Sanders and even Joe Biden himself have rejected the idea of packing the courts. So, this is sort of a temper tantrum by the left, but in reality so many things would have to happen over the will over the American people and over the course of our history which has had nine justices for over a century, I think it is highly unlikely for them to be able to implement this particular what I would call terroristic threat against our branch of government – the Judiciary.

Sure. They’re talking about a lot of crazy things. They’re talking about changing the composition of the court to be a rotating set of justices or age limits rather things like that. I think there are reasons pro and con for including those two jurisdictions as states, but among the good reasons would not be four more democratic votes. I think that’s really important point for people on both sides to look at because Republicans can play that game too. We can have North California and South California. We can have splitting states in half, there are things we could do too. That would be dumb. We have a good balance right now. And so, they need to take it down a notch and be more reasonable. Each side get its turn in our system.

The rhetoric is for their base and their red meat in firing people up, getting any of these things accomplished in the Senate in real life, I don’t think it’s going to happen unless they do a few more things. Eliminate the filibuster, for example. That would slow down the process. That is one of the things they are threatening to do. So, yes, if the Democrats in unison take a number of different measures simultaneously over the objections of polling and assuming that Joe Biden will honor his word and not sign some of this, it’s possible. That is definitely something that we need to be talking about as we go into this confirmation battle. It isn’t the end of the world every time one justice from one party or the other gets nominated. It is part of a political process. I think that we need to stick firm on what the history is and what the Constitution provides for and focus on that.

100% correct and that cuts both ways by the way. Conservatives may tell you, “Oh, we think this is really going to galvanize our base.” I think our base is pretty galvanized already, to be quite frank, at what’s at stake happening with riots going on around this country. The left is going to say, “Well, this is really going to drive our fundraising and galvanize our base”. Because abortion is like a religious principle on the left. But, it is not just abortion that is at stake. I’ve been litigating these COVID shutdown cases in multiple states in America. That’s in the balance right here because right now you have four justices, before Justice Ginsburg passed, who are willing to consider challenges at the highest level to – restrictions on speech, restrictions on church, restrictions on businesses being shut down. Justice Roberts was with the liberal wing of the party. One more conservative Justice could tip that balance. That’s going to be very important to a lot of Americans as well. There’s all kinds of issues with the administrative state, the power of non-elected bureaucrats to govern our lives, environmental protection and so many other issues. And so, I think a lot of people are going to be looking at both sides of that. You may see lobbyists, you may see PAC money coming into this election who were sitting it out because of those issues, depending on who the nominee is, and his or her, more likely her position on these issues. So I think that we already had a very fraught election. And now, we’re going to have a couple of additional issues. And yes, probably more money and more outside activism pouring in to influence the outcome of the election and get up the vote.

Thank you, Stuart.

Harmeet Dhillon is a nationally recognized lawyer, trusted boardroom advisor, and passionate advocate for individual, corporate and institutional clients across numerous industries and walks of life. Her focus is in commercial litigation, employment law, First Amendment rights, and election law matters.
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