Top Senate Republican says Obama chose to 'politicize' Supreme Court nomination
March 16, 2016
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A California Senate candidate on Tuesday called for expanding the Supreme Court.Rep.
Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the Court’s expansion is necessary after Republicans with the backing of dark money and conservative legal groups stacked it with “their right-wing nominees of choice.”
Schiff, who has authored legislation to expand the number of Supreme Court justices, issued the call in a fundraising email under the subject line “Re: SCOTUS.”
The email says “we must expand the Supreme Court. And let me tell you, I didn’t come to this conclusion lightly.”
“Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell gamed the system and kicked off one the most conservative eras of SCOTUS that our country has ever seen,” Schiff said.
READ: Trump team planning an all-out assault on Michael Cohen: experts
“And now, our Supreme Court, which is supposed to be a neutral, fair arbiter of the Constitution and our legal system, is full of ultra-conservative justices who have a myriad of conflicts of interest and hyper-partisan positions (that they don’t even keep a secret!).”
Two GOP lawmakers is already trying to preempt such expansion.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Kennedy (R-La.) last week introduced a constitutional amendment that would limit the Court to nine justices.
“The effort to pack the Supreme Court and turn justices into politicians in robes would delegitimize and destroy one of the most important institutions in America,” Kennedy said in a statement.
“Congress must protect the judicial branch from political expedience by safeguarding its current structure.”
Schiff argues that under its current structure the Supreme Court is “full of ultra-conservative justices who have a myriad of conflicts of interest and hyper-partisan positions (that they don’t even keep a secret!).”
“And when decisions — like the fate of President Biden’s student debt cancellation, the continued attempts to strip away reproductive rights, and the unfair redistricting of Congressional seats across the country — are at the mercy of a Republican-stacked Supreme Court, we have to act.”
In addition to expanding the Court, Schiff supports term limits on the justices.
“Adding additional justices to the Supreme Court is nothing new historically, and doing this will help restore legitimacy and ensure our nation’s highest court doesn’t continue to be used to advance a partisan agenda at odds with the interests of the American people,” Schiff said.
“In short, McConnell and Trump stacked the court, and now we must unstack it.”
RELATED: GOP congressman confronted live on CNN over his gun-toting ‘come and take it’ video
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The father of a 17-year-old who was killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting on Tuesday slammed “members of Congress who grovel at the feet of the gun lobby.”
Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was among 14 students and three faculty members killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, blasted lawmakers who have stood in the way of tougher gun laws in an opinion piece in The Daily Beast.
Oliver was arrested Thursday after he was removed from a House hearing on gun laws after he and his wife Patricia clashed with Republican lawmakers. He has been shown in photos being pinned to the ground and restrained.
Oliver and Patricia in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting founded Change the Ref, a group that promotes awareness about mass shootings and works to reduce the influence of the NRA and gun manufacturers.
READ: Pence lost — no matter how he tries to spin it: legal expert
The shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville Monday that killed six people underscores “our reasons for disrupting a congressional hearing—and our commitment to do it again, if necessary—is self-evident.”
“There’s a reason why the gun homicide rate in the U.S. is more than 20 times higher than in Europe or Australia,” Oliver said.
“The rest of the world knows that to keep people safe, you must strongly regulate guns. But in the U.S., gun companies sell military-style assault weapons to civilians, even teenagers. Firearms can be sold without even minimal checks in “private sales.” And there is no limit on the number of guns a person can buy.”
That the House subcommittee hearing the Olivers attended last week was called: “ATF’s Assault on the Second Amendment: When is Enough Enough?” reflects the absurdity of America’s approach to gun laws, Oliver argues.
“The House of Representatives did not think ‘enough was enough’ when 19 schoolchildren and two adults were killed with an assault weapon at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, or when almost 100,000 people lost their lives to gunfire in our country over the past two years,” Oliver said.
“But at this hearing, they cast the gun industry and gun owners as victims of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms—a take so absurd that it would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.”
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Watch: Jamie Raskin derails GOP hearing by railing against Trump's 'lethal recklessness and lying'
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Should the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg secure an indictment against former President Donald Trump for accounting fraud relating to his $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, his legal team's first move will be to go hard after Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, who previously went to prison for helping facilitate the scheme and has now turned witness for the prosecution.
This is the take of former prosecutors Elie Honig and Laura Coates, who analyzed the case on CNN Tuesday evening.
"Well, Laura, there's a lot we don't know," said Honig. "But you can bet on this. If this case gets indicted, they're gonna go after Michael Cohen with a passion. Let's take a look."
"It was legal fees that was invoiced by Michael Cohen, who arranged this on his own with his own money initially, took out a loan, literally resolved this without the president knowing," said Trump attorney Joe Tacopina in a clip.
"So obviously he's trying to say look, it's just nothing to worry about. It's only him," said Coates. "He was kind of a lone wolf in this. He is no longer affiliated in any way with Donald Trump. But remember, this is a tactic that he's trying to use to give that 10-foot pole. It may not be successful, though, Elie, because, of course, they were very tied at the time of this actually happening."
"Yeah, it's really important to remember the crime here is not the payment of hush money. The crime in how they booked that," said Honig. "And so they're going to blame Michael Cohen. The other thing that we know they're going to do, Laura, is attack Michael Cohen's credibility."
The two then role-played how this could play out.
"I'm going to attack his credibility," said Coates. "You think about it. If you are a classic, you know, defense attorney, you're going to say, really? The guy who has an obvious, perhaps, ax to grind against my client? He has been steadfast in his criticism. He essentially has had this air of, why is it just me who was actually the person who was having this happen to? And so in that respect, you're going to lead with that ... this has happened before the idea of attacking someone's credibility. It is really key to any defense."
And any cooperating witness," agreed Honig. "The prosecution is going to argue, yes, he has this history of lying, yes, he was convicted of perjury. But he did that all when he was with Donald Trump, and since then, they'll argue, he's come clean, and they'll argue he's corroborated by documents, including the checks, which we've seen, which show the reimbursement payment to Michael Cohen signed by Donald Trump. So there will be a big battle over Michael Cohen's credibility."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Elie Honig and Laura Coates walk through how Trump will attack Michael Cohen at trial www.youtube.com
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