Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: “Democracy Demands a Fair and Ethical Court”
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman today welcomed former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards to a press conference in Trenton to highlight the consequential, rightwing rulings coming from the Supreme Court.
With legal experts and issue advocates in tow, Rep. Watson Coleman also urged reform of America’s jarringly swampy 9-member Supreme Court.
Today’s presser is latest stop in a nationwide ‘Just Majority’ bus tour whose slogan is “Democracy Demands A Fair And Ethical Court.”
The campaign is a coalition of reproductive rights, gun violence prevention, civil rights, and judicial reform groups calling for ethics reforms and Supreme Court expansion.
Recent news about Justice Neil Gorsuch lucrative (and dodgy) real estate deals followed shocking revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas’ lavish lifestyle bankrolled by an eccentric rightwing billionaire with business before the Hight Court.
“For decades, conservative politicians and their powerful donors have worked to undermine democracy and used the Supreme Court to do it,” Watson Coleman told InsiderNJ. “Seemingly every month or so a new scandal emerges, from Justice Thomas’s gifts, to the sale of property by Justice Gorsuch to lawyers with cases before the court, to Chief Justice Roberts refusing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Ms. Watson Coleman’s remarks followed yesterday’s revelation that Chief Justice John Roberts’ wife received $10m in recruiting fees from law firms with business before the Supreme Court.
Swampy, ain’t it?
“The result has been a cratering of American’s faith in the Court,” Ms. Watson Coleman added. “There are many reforms we can explore: a code of ethics, term limits or cycling of judges to the lower courts, but only expansion would immediately restore balance to a court controlled by an unaccountable, unethical majority that has put their personal political bias above the law.”
Cecile Richards, who ran Planned Parenthood of America from 2006-2018, echoed Congresswoman Watson Coleman’s sentiments.
“I’m excited to be here in Trenton to talk about the need to reform our Supreme Court,” Ms. Richards told InsiderNJ. “We need ethic reform where the Supreme Court is held to the same standards as any elected official would be. Personally, I believe we need term limits. It is incredible that the Court that j just took away rights from all people in this county to make their own decisions about pregnancy could be sitting there for decades more. This urgent and this is a crisis in America.”
Ms. Watson Coleman and Ms. Richards were be joined by Caroline Fredrickson, a former member of the Biden Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States who cited “ethics reform” of the Supreme Court as a top priority.
Jay Lassiter is an award-winning writer and podcaster based in Cherry Hill, NJ.
So a decision on the court goes against your beliefs and therefore the court is no longer legitimate?
Of course it’s already a ‘fair and ethical’ court. All the fairness and ethics money can buy.
Correct Danny. Democrats will always look to delegitimize any decision that they disagree with.
The court is now interpreting the Constitution, and not making new laws, something Coleman and her minions refuse to understand!
all these good lessons have been learned from republicans who have been agitating around the judiciary and decisions for decades. no matter what or how. I recall one merrick garland who didn’t receive the courtesy of a hearing to even give the impression of statesmanship, respect for tradition and good governance.
One of the critical issues is whether the constitution is a staid, etched in cement document 200 plus years old, or whether it is meant to grow and stretch to meet societal and economic needs and changes; Another is whether and how we have the temerity to “know” what was in the minds of the founders in the 1700s who had no concept of what was to come in the future; and whether we will use the constitution and the supreme court as a weapon against our people, or a tool to advance our country.