ACS’s Statement on the President’s Commission on the Supreme Court’s Release of Discussion Materials

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Pablo Willis, pwillis@acslaw.org   

Washington, DC — Today, the White House released discussion materials compiled by the President’s Commission on the Supreme Court. According to the White House, these discussion materials will be followed by a final report in November. 

“Our Supreme Court is facing a legitimacy crisis that is imperiling our democracy. We are witnessing the intentional erosion of our most basic constitutional rights at the hands of a packed Court that is trampling judicial norms and precedent to advance a partisan agenda,” said ACS President Russ Feingold.

“We have said since the Commission’s beginning that for the Commission to provide a meaningful contribution to restoring the legitimacy of our judiciary, it needs to advance a specific list of Supreme Court reforms that can be acted upon in the near term. The discussion materials released today unfortunately fail to match the urgency of the situation and do not lay out a solution to the legitimacy crisis before us. There are a variety of reforms that should be advanced, including changing the composition of the Court to remedy the Right’s packing of the Court, ending life tenure, and ensuring the Court cannot use the shadow docket as an express way to thwart civil rights and liberties. To be clear, the absence of such reform is almost certain to result in this Court continuing to strip away our constitutional rights and undermine our democratic legitimacy as a country.”

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AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY
ACS believes that the Constitution is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We interpret the Constitution based on its text and against the backdrop of history and lived experience. Through a diverse nationwide network of progressive lawyers, law students, judges, scholars, and many others, we work to uphold the Constitution in the 21st Century by ensuring that law is a force for protecting our democracy and the public interest and for improving people’s lives. For more information, visit us at www.acslaw.org or on Twitter @acslaw.