Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said this week that members of the Supreme Court could face impeachment and other potential congressional action following a spate of decisions lauded by conservatives. The representative made the statements while questioning the legitimacy of the high court.
“They are expanding their role into acting as though they are Congress itself,” she said. “And that, I believe, is an expansion of power that we really must be focusing on. The danger of this court and the abuse of power in this court particularly as it is related to the entanglements around conflicts of interest, as well.”
CNN’s Dana Bash asked if the “justices’ power should somehow be limited?”
Ocasio-Cortez agreed with the idea, stating that limitations on the court’s power would not be a “new development in history,” calling such changes a “part of our system of checks and balances.”
“The courts, if they were to proceed without any check on their power, without any balance on their power, then we will start to see an undemocratic and frankly dangerous authoritarian expansion of power in the Supreme Court which what we are seeing now from overturning abortion to the ruling for discrimination and frankly stripping the full dignity and personhood of LGBTQ people in the United States,” she said.
The representative added that impeachment “must” be “on the table.” She said that Congress had a “broad level of tools” to handle “misconduct, overreach and abuse of power.”
Ocasio-Cortez said that there had not been “adequate oversight necessary” to preserve the court’s legitimacy.
“And in the process, being themselves have been destroying the legitimacy of the court, which is profoundly dangerous for our entire democracy,” she said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Congress should consider impeachment, subpoenas for Supreme Court justiceshttps://t.co/kR4PtZqs5C pic.twitter.com/j0I5ps1UIn
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) July 3, 2023
Ocasio-Cortez said that several members of the court itself believe that it is going “much too far.”
In particular, she called Justice Clarence Thomas’ recent criticism of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson “profoundly disrespectful.”
The New York representative made the comments following several 6-3 decisions by the court’s conservative majority. This included striking down the use of race as a factor in university admission. The court also ruled that President Joe Biden’s effort to forgive more than $400 billion in student loans through executive action was unconstitutional.
