Benjamin S. Weiss
Originally posted 21 Feb 24
One of the Senate’s most prominent Supreme Court critics on Wednesday floated the idea that Congress could step in to block the high court from what he characterized as efforts to manipulate facts in cases that benefit Republican special interests.
Under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court has had a “near-uniform pattern of handing down rulings benefitting identifiable Republican donor interests” on a smattering of issues including reproductive rights, immigration and health care, wrote Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in an article published in the Ohio State Law Journal.
The Roberts court has presided over more than 80 5-4 rulings on issues advancing GOP policy priorities with few exceptions, he said, contending that the high court’s current conservative supermajority has pursued “results-oriented jurisprudence” for Republican political operatives.
A pattern of “extra-record fact finding” has contributed to these decisions, Whitehouse said — arguing that justices have repeatedly and improperly undertaken efforts to manipulate the facts of cases in which a lower court, or Congress, has already established a factual record.
Such malfeasance means taking the Supreme Court’s decisions on faith “is no longer automatically justified,” he said. “Too many decisions are delivered goods, not judicial work.”
Here is a summary:
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse suggests potential congressional intervention to address concerns about the Supreme Court's increasing reliance on "extra-record fact-finding" in recent rulings. He argues that this practice, where justices seemingly manipulate or ignore established facts, undermines the Court's credibility.
Whitehouse argues that a pattern of disregard for congressional findings and longstanding appellate court norms is evident in several recent Supreme Court decisions. He believes this approach benefits certain special interests and erodes trust in the Court's impartiality.
The article highlights the need for a potential response from Congress to curb this perceived judicial overreach by the Supreme Court.
