With ‘No-Bad-Idea’ Brainstorm, Kamala Harris Rains on America in the Name of ‘Reform’

Vice President Harris is telling Democrats to “fight fire with fire,” advocating such “reforms” as adding Supreme Court justices, House members, and stars to the flag. It’s a wholesale transformation of America on the scale of a constitutional convention with only Democrats invited to participate.On Wednesday, Ms. Harris addressed a webinar for Emerge America, where she’s an honorary co-founder. “This is a moment,” she said, “where there are no bad ideas,” and suggested “a no-bad-idea brainstorm.” Ms. Harris’s strategy is to impose changes from Congress and legislatures in “blue states” while removing the Supreme Court as an obstacle.The former vice president also suggested Democrats “talk about what we need to do … around the Electoral College.” Abolishing it in favor of a national popular vote would require a constitutional amendment, meaning small states accepting large ones forever crushing them. The vice president opposed the idea as a presidential candidate in 2024.“We talk about the idea of Supreme Court reform,” Ms. Harris said, “which includes expanding” it. Congress has the power to organize the High Court but has always respected it as an independent branch that interprets laws while being insulated from politics.President Franklin Roosevelt branded his “court-packing” idea for adding more pliant justices “reform,” too. Yet President Theodore Roosevelt, in his autobiography, warned against the ephemeral word. He skewered those who “were apt vociferously to demand ‘reform’ as if it were some concrete substance, like cake, which could be handed out at will.”In 2019, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal stalwart, said that nine justices “seems to be a good number” and expansion would taint the high court with partisanship. Enter Ms. Harris, who would expand the bench with the express purpose of making it a rubber stamp for policies she favors.Ms. Harris backed new “ethics rules” to “penalize” justices for “lying” in Senate confirmation hearings about their judicial philosophy. This would force nominees to commit to specific rulings and, once they don the robe, have them reading public opinion instead of applying laws.The Nine already have ethics rules and Congress can remove justices for high crimes or misdemeanors. Yet axing them for partisan reasons was settled in 1804, when Democrats impeached Associate Justice Samuel Chase, alleging that his rulings displayed a Federalist bias. He was acquitted by the Senate and stayed on the bench.“We invite a conversation about multi-member districts,” Ms. Harris said. The Fair Representation Act would add up to four members per district, overturning 1929’s Permanent Apportionment Act, which capped the House at 435 members. Raising that number as high as 2,175, while permitted by the Constitution, would end Congress as it has existed for 237 years.“Let’s talk about statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C.,” Ms. Harris said, to get four new Democratic senators. This would require ignoring the will of Puerto Ricans, who have voted to maintain territorial status, and the Constitution. The District Clause requires the capital city to be neutral ground so that no one state, or party, can dominate the federal government.“These are the things I think that we’ve got to do,” Ms. Harris said. “We’ve got to neutralize these red states from cheating, including blue states expanding their maps.” But if gerrymandering is foul play, Democrats ought to be sitting in the penalty box, too. None of New England’s 21 districts, for example, is drawn to give the GOP a competitive chance.“These folks are playing to win,” Ms. Harris said of Republicans. “We’ve got to play to win too.” Democrats, of course, recruit, give speeches, sling mud, and run all the other legal plays in politics. The Constitution sets the field and the best candidates win. The losers suffer the agony of defeat and adjust in hopes of winning next time.Ms. Harris saw no need for a wholesale overhaul of America when Democrats won, but now she wants to change the rules and remove the Supreme Court as referee. It’s not just a poor game plan. It’s a flood of bad ideas — a brainstorm that rains on the Constitution’s goal “to form a more perfect union.”

With ‘No-Bad-Idea’ Brainstorm, Kamala Harris Rains on America in the Name of ‘Reform’

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