Reps. Schiff, Johnson, Colleagues Announce Creation of the Court Reform Now Task Force
Washington, D.C.— In case you missed it, yesterday, Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Madeleine Dean (D-Penn.), and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), along with court reform advocacy groups, announced the creation of The Court Reform Now Task Force.
The task force will be utilized as a platform to increase awareness and elevate the debate around key pieces of court reform legislation to fix and rebalance the court – The Judiciary Act to expand the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Ethics, Transparency & Recusal Act (SCERT) to require a binding code of ethics and transparency measures for justices, and the TERM Act setting term limits for justices.
“The American people have lost faith in this Supreme Court because of the corrupting influence of undisclosed gifts and favors from billionaires and special interests. Our Court Reform Now Task Force will push forward much needed changes that ensure the Court is accountable, fair, transparent, and works to protect the rights of all Americans, not just special interests and wealthy donors,” said Rep. Schiff.
"I formed this Task Force because we are at a crisis point for the Supreme Court," said Rep. Johnson. “The nation’s highest court refuses to bind itself to an enforceable code of conduct after decades of ethical misconduct by certain justices who consistently rule in favor of the big-money special interests that put them on the bench. Even more disturbing is the Court’s disruption of the system of checks and balances by usurping both Legislative and Executive authority with activist decisions that disregard established precedent to achieve political results that threaten freedom and democracy as we know it. The result has been a severe loss of public trust and confidence in the Court as the guardian of the rule of law. To restore public trust and confidence, Congress must pass reforms that add seats to the Supreme Court, require term limits for justices, and which require the Court to impose upon itself a binding and enforceable code of conduct. The task force will be a platform to raise awareness, educate members and staff, and stimulate debate around the need to reform the Supreme Court, so we can restore judicial independence, meaningful checks and balances and protection of the rights of all Americans.”
“An ethical, impartial Judiciary is crucial to safeguarding our democracy and protecting the rights of the American people,” Rep. Dean said. “I'm grateful to Congressman Johnson for his leadership and initiative and look forward to serving with him and our fellow co-chairs on the Court Reform Now Taskforce, working to get crucial pieces of legislation like the Judiciary Act, SCERT Act, and Term Act over the finish line.”
“Over the past two decades, polls have shown a significant plunge in public trust for the Supreme Court after overturning decades of legal precedents in exchange for far-right wish-lists. The court’s claims of impartiality have been decimated by certain justices of the Court who espouse extremist political positions and have been revealed to have withheld significant financial ties to Republican megadonors. It begs the question: as the highest court of the land, who does the Supreme Court answer to?” said Rep. Crockett. “We are establishing the Court Reform Task Force to answer that question with resounding clarity: the Supreme Court answers to the law, the Constitution, and the American people.”
“Every major evolution of our nation’s judicial ethics framework has been born out of high-profile controversies involving judges and justices,” said Adam Smith, Vice President for Democracy Initiatives at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Today, we find ourselves once again at such an inflection point. CREW applauds Congressman Johnson for leading this task force and his unwavering commitment to restoring the public's faith in the Supreme Court and ensuring the justices are held to the highest ethical standards."
“Our environmental laws need judges who will enforce them, but the Supreme Court’s extreme MAGA supermajority has repeatedly shown that it will twist the law to limit climate action, roll back protections for clean water and air, gut voting rights, and open the floodgates to Big Polluter money in politics. LCV stands with Representatives Hank Johnson, Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, Madeleine Dean, Jasmine Crockett, and all the members of the Court Reform Now Task Force as they fight to expand and rebalance the Supreme Court, require a binding code of ethics, and advance other reforms to ensure the nation’s highest court serves the people, not Big Polluters,” said Doug Lindner, Senior Director of Judiciary & Democracy at the League of Conservation Voters.
“When the Supreme Court ended Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago, it opened the door to the cruel and dangerous abortion bans that are harming real people nationwide,” said Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju. “Our fundamental rights shouldn’t be up to the whims of extremist justices. We need court reform to restore the legitimacy of our federal judiciary and address the crises we face. We’re grateful to Rep. Johnson and our champions in Congress who are fighting to make that a reality through this task force.”
“While the House may not be involved in judicial nominations, it still has a vital role to play in regulating this unhinged Supreme Court,” said Rakim H.D. Brooks, President of Alliance for Justice. “We applaud these new efforts to raise awareness and propose robust court reform solutions. Congress must be uncompromising in its effort to hold this Court accountable using every tool available.”
“We are grateful for the leadership of Representatives Johnson, Raskin, Dean, Crockett and Schiff in holding our out-of-control Supreme Court accountable by establishing the Court Reform Now Task Force,” said Meagan Hatcher-Mays, Senior Advisor at Court Accountability. “This new task force is a critical step toward confronting the far-right scheme that has captured our courts and dragged our constitutional rights back to the 18th century in service to MAGA funders and their allies. At a time when a new Supreme Court scandal drops seemingly every week, this task force makes clear that a strong coalition of House members won’t stop fighting to rein in the MAGA justices’ grotesque and un-American abuses of power.”
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