[caption id=”attachment_144235″ align=”aligncenter” width=”1711″]Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, speaks during a debate on possible amendments to a gay marriage bill in Annapolis, Md., Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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Constitutional law professor and Maryland state senator Jamie Raskin said a Republican win in 2016 would have a devastating impact on the Supreme Court.
“If a future Republican president replaces even a single liberal justice with a conservative, we could wind up with a democracy of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations,” Raskin wrote in an op-ed for the Xenia Gazette.
With several justices already over 80 years old, Raskin points out the next president could nominate as many as four new members to the court.
“Will the new justices bolster the conservatives, who favor legislative power only when it violates minority rights, or the liberals, who have demonstrated a serious commitment both to voting rights and to the legislative process?” he wrote.
Raskin, who played a leading role in the passage of Maryland’s marriage equality law, denounced Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia for their dissent in the recent SCOTUS same-sex marriage ruling.
“What a joke,” Raskin wrote. “The same justices have no problem with nullifying laws that implement affirmative action, produce majority-minority legislative districts, or exclude corporations from spending money in political campaigns.”
The American University professor is gearing up for his own election in 2016. He is running for the seat in Congress currently held by Rep. Chris Van Hollen.
