MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Republican fervor over the Supreme Court is catching on with Democrats, at least in New Hampshire, ahead of next week’s primary election.
On the campaign trail, the 2020 Democratic White House hopefuls have been repeatedly grilled on the country’s highest court as cases involving Obamacare, climate change, and abortion work their way through the clogs of the judicial system.
“Democrats have not done enough to get judges in, and the Republicans have been working really hard for years,” Joni Taub, 68, a Bedford art dealer, told the Washington Examiner at an event this week for Joe Biden’s presidential bid.
Norm Kushner, 68, described the Democrats of being “essentially asleep at the wheel.”
“And when you’re appointed to a judgeship on the Supreme Court, or an appellate court, or a district court, it’s a lifetime appointment,” the retiree from Manchester said.
For Shannon Conner, 34, of Monterey, California, who was in the first-in-the-nation primary state as a political tourist, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s 2016 maneuvering to prevent former President Barack Obama from appointing Merrick Garland because it was an election year “politicized” the court and “raised the stakes” for her.
“It was blatantly obvious that they were trying to ensure the Supreme Court justices were supportive of their agenda,” Conner said. “[The court] may see things on even the election, we don’t know what’s coming, Bush v. Gore in 2000, and with Trump, you can’t predict anything.”
Yet Will Conner, 29, downplayed the need for lists of possible justices and judges, as the Federalist Society-approved one President Trump supplied during the 2016 cycle.
“I think Trump had to come out with the list the last time around because he needed to prove himself as a conservative, whereas I don’t know that that’s going to be necessary on the Democratic side,” said Conner, a Santa Clara IT auditor told the Washington Examiner.
A focus on the Supreme Court and judges more broadly has long been a specialty on the Right. Believing the Left dominates the media, academic, and popular culture, the judiciary was one to have for conservatives to thrive. The 2017 and 2018 confirmations of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, respectively, reflect that view.
Fear of Trump nominations has been stoked by the 180 judges he has named during his time in office, 50 of whom sit on appeal courts. In contrast, Obama put that number of judges on circuit courts around the country over the course of his two terms.
A poll before the 2018 midterm cycle reported that the court was the top voting reason for 76% of respondents, 81% of whom were Democrats, after McConnell blocked Garland while elevating Kavanaugh, a Trump administration appointee, amid allegations of sexual misconduct while in high school. That Pew Research Center survey can be compared to a 2016 iteration that found the bench was the motivating factor for 65% of voters, 62% of whom were Democrats.
And it appears that data is substantiated with anecdotal evidence in 2020 ahead of the New Hampshire contest on Feb. 11.
During the New Hampshire debate last Friday night, Biden, the former vice president, was asked whether he would require a pro-abortion litmus test for his pool of potential nominees, saying he would only appoint judges who believe in unenumerated rights. But the former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, who oversaw hearings on the failed nominating of Robert Bork and the successful one for Justice Clarence Thomas, also said the discussion was moot unless Democrats take back the Senate in November.
On the other hand, Pete Buttigieg, 38, was pressed on his idea of expanding the Supreme Court.
“What I’ve called for is not only reforming the number of justices on the bench but structural reform so that some of the justices are not appointed through a partisan process,” the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor said in his defense.
Buttigieg, now a top-tier candidate for next week after winning the most delegates in Iowa, underscored the need for change at a justice forum this weekend in Concord, pegging the Supreme Court as “one more political institution.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 70, on message, attributed the problem to the corrupting force of money, asserting “even things [Republicans] couldn’t get done through the legislature, things they couldn’t get done by having a president, they get a third bite at the apple through the courts.”
“Democrats have to make our courts an electoral issue. We need to be willing to fight back,” she said. “Democrats left open seats, Democrats delayed, Democrats just did not make it a priority in either direction.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, added, “We can learn some lessons from what the Right wing is doing,” including recruiting the best legal minds and vetting them, so they’re ready from the outset of another administration. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, 59, sided with Sanders about compiling lists of possible nominees.
Meanwhile, Trump, 73, is likely to laud his judicial achievements over the heads of Democrats during his rally in Manchester on Monday night.
