On page 4 of the July 31, 2023 edition of the Times was a full page story (with pictures) with this headline: "Democracy May Hang On Israeli Court's Move." The subheadline is this: "Parliamentary Challenge to Judiciary Creates Dilemma Familiar in More Autocratic States." There you have it. Any change in the judiciary results in Israel becoming an autocratic state. It's nonsense.
The article then goes on to suggest that with the elimination of the Israeli High Court's ability to review government actions based on the "reasonableness" standard, Israel will become an autocracy. Like Hungary under Viktor Orban. (See the March 28 and March 30, 2023 posts for a full discussion of the "reasonableness" standard and other proposed judicial changes in Israel.)
In our country, Democrats regularly attack the Supreme Court. Many of us were stunned when Obama openly criticized the Court during his State of the Union speech in 2010, with some of the Justices sitting right in front of him. Obama: "With all due deference to the separation of powers (the Citizens United decision) reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections." Obama had no respect for the separation of powers - see "A Tale Of Two Presidents, Part I.") Funny how it was never a concern when unions spent unlimited money in support of Democrat candidates.
Recall Senator Schumer (D-NY) standing outside the Supreme Court building and threatening the Court regarding the abortion issue: "I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions." Quite astounding to see a US Senator threaten Justices of the Court.
How about the brief filed by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Durbin (D-Ill) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). In their brief, these Democrats said the Court was "not well." They went on to threaten that the Court might be "restructured" if it did not "heal itself." The Democrats wanted the Court to dismiss a case involving a New York City gun law. Why wasn't the Court well? Because now it had a conservative majority.
Not surprisingly, the Republican senators were united in their pushback against the threat to the Court. But Whitehouse stood firm, and replied as follows: "The response to our brief from Republicans and the partisan donor interests driving the Court's polarization shows exactly why it's time to speak out...They want us to shut up about their capture of the Court, we will not."
There you have it. This brief by the Democrats was filed in a case after the Court had a conservative majority. Whitehouse and the others were never concerned when the the Democrats/liberals "captured" the Court. Partisan donor interests? Is that because no left-leaning partisan donors ever bring cases to the Court? Please. Whether it's Israel or the United States, the left is unable to tolerate the Court having a conservative majority. One of the proposed judicial reform changes in Israel would end the practice of sitting justices (mostly left-wing) having a veto power over who would replace them. Instead, the Knesset, Israel's elected parliament, would be able to select justices.
What's the problem with politicians selecting the justices, just as we have in the US? The problem is that the current government in Israel is a conservative government. Therefore, the government might be in a position to select conservative justices. The left, such as the New York Times, can no more tolerate that in Israel than they can here.
It may shock you to see this from a Harvard law professor (Mark Tushnet) and San Francisco State political science professor (Aaron Belkin). But here is their letter to President Biden. "We urge President Biden to restrain MAGA justices immediately by announcing that if and when they issue rulings that are based on gravely mistaken interpretations of the Constitution...the Administration will be guided by its own constitutional interpretations."
That is pretty clear - if you don't like the Court's ruling, ignore it. In all of these cases cited above, the left shows time after time that they have no respect for the Court, and no respect for one of the fundamental cornerstones of our democracy - the separation of powers. Biden has already adhered to these professors' advice, by finding a 'workaround" to the Court's decision denying him the power to forgive student loan debt.
Remind me again about who the threat to our democracy really is.
