AOC urges Democrats to try to rein in Supreme Court after series of conservative-leaning decisions
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday excoriated the US Supreme Court for “overreach and abuse of power” after a series of conservative-leaning decisions and urged Democrats to ratchet up oversight of it.
“We have justices saying that the Supreme Court is going themselves much too far. They are expanding their role into acting as though they are Congress itself,” said the Democratic socialist from New York to CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“That, I believe, is an expansion of powers that we really must be focusing on: the danger of this court and the abuse of power in this court, particularly as it is related to entanglements around conflict of interest,” she said.
Ironically, AOC’s criticism echoes that of some conservatives, who tend to favor the originalist judicial philosophy.
Originalists want the court to stick with a strict interpretation of the text of the law and refrain from being a “super legislature.” Generally, liberals tend to favor judicial pragmatism, also referred to as living constitutionalism, in which the court adjusts its interpretation of the Constitution for the times.
As with many Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez was outraged over a handful of decisions handed down by the high court last week on matters such as student loan forgiveness and affirmative action.
“These are the types of rulings that signal a dangerous creep towards authoritarianism and centralization of power in the court,” she warned.
Ocasio-Cortez said that to rectify that, she wants the US to take steps aimed at curtailing the power of the justices.
For example, she suggested that the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate alleged conflicts of interests by members of the nation’s highest court, including Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
She repeated her push to potentially impeach some members.
“There also must be impeachment on the table. We have a broad level of tools to deal with this conduct, overreach and abuse of power,” the pol said. “And the Supreme Court has not been receiving the adequate oversight necessary in order to preserve their own legitimacy.”
Ocasio-Cortez specifically took aim at Thomas over his tense exchange with fellow Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in several opinions released last week.
Thomas criticized the court’s newest member for using “her broad observations about statistical relationships between race and select measures of health, wealth, and well-being to label all blacks as victims” in the affirmative action case.
In that case, the court ruled 6-3 that race-based affirmative action programs used for admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional.
“What Justice Clarence Thomas wrote there I believe is profoundly disrespectful,’ AOC said. “I think it’s profoundly insulting and, and I think that he really demonstrated his character.”
Ocasio-Cortez also opined on the student-loan ruling, in which the high court scrapped President Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan.
She praised Biden for now planning to rely on the 1965 Higher Education Act instead of the HEROES Act, which the high court rejected, as justification for his sweeping proposal.
The Higher Education Act gives the education secretary authority to “compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand, however acquired, including any equity or any right of redemption.”
As Biden pursues that strategy, the congresswoman said she wants the administration to at least temporarily suspend interest payments on student loans “wherever possible.
“People should not be incurring interest during this 12-month period,” the pol said.
