Demand Justice Statement on Harry Reid’s Endorsement of Term Limits for the Supreme Court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2019

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DEMAND JUSTICE STATEMENT ON HARRY REID’S ENDORSEMENT OF TERM LIMITS FOR THE SUPREME COURT

WASHINGTON, DC—Demand Justice Executive Director Brian Fallon released the following statement Thursday in response to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announcing his support for term limits for Supreme Court justices:

“Harry Reid’s comments show that a consensus is emerging among Democrats regarding the need to structurally reform the Supreme Court. The Democratic candidates for president should follow Reid’s lead and announce their own plans to reform the Court. Any future progressive legislation is quite likely doomed so long as we accept the status quo of this overtly partisan Roberts Court.

“Even in retirement, Reid continues to display leadership in our party when it comes to the courts. If not for his prescient move in 2013 to break the Republican filibuster of Barack Obama’s judges, Donald Trump would have inherited even more judicial vacancies to fill and the all-important DC Circuit Court of Appeals would have continued to be dominated by Republican judges, instead of the Democratic-appointed majority it has had these last six years. And when it came to recommending candidates for the federal bench, Reid set an important example by prioritizing lawyers who were not only racially diverse but also had professional backgrounds that are woefully underrepresented across the judiciary.”

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