Some Democrats try to conceal their radicalism from voters in order to get elected. Others are much more blunt in sharing their insane beliefs.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is so bad at politics that she falls into the latter category.
On the latest stop of her post-2024 “Listen to Me Cackle Like a Loon” tour, the California Democrat sat down with actress Keke Palmer to offer some insight on what her party plans to do if it retakes Congress this fall. At the top of this wish list is none other than packing the U.S. Supreme Court with left-wing activists.
“The work that we can do about winning back the House and the Senate is going to be on a number of things. For example, I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court. We need more justices on the Supreme Court so that we can have a court that actually reinforces the spirit and principles behind the Constitution of the United States,” Harris told Palmer during a podcast interview earlier this week. The former vice president also called for “changing” the Electoral College and granting statehood to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
One really has to admire how open Harris is about why her party wants to add more justices to the high court. While some Democrats have tried to hide behind the weak talking point that increasing the court to 13 justices is necessary to have one justice per federal circuit court, the former vice president admits it has nothing to do with that; it’s all about acquiring power.
The role of the Supreme Court in the American system of government is to interpret the Constitution and laws. That is, to faithfully apply these texts to the cases and controversies that come before it in a way that does not subvert their original meaning.
Contrary to Harris’ insinuation otherwise, that is the approach the current Supreme Court’s conservative majority has generally taken in recent years. That’s been especially true since President Trump’s replacement of Anthony Kennedy with Brett Kavanaugh and Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Amy Coney Barrett, which further increased the court’s propensity to produce decisions in accordance with the law’s original meaning. In essence, the current court is (for the most part) “reinforc[ing] the spirit and principles behind the Constitution.”
What Harris and Democrats want is a Supreme Court that does the exact opposite. Rather than work to pass their agenda through the traditional legislative process, they want to pack the high court with more Ketanji Brown Jacksons to create a left-wing majority that will superimpose their preferred policies into law via activist rulings — regardless of what the Constitution actually calls for.
It’s why Democrats have consistently attacked the conservative justices for their decisions overturning Roe v. Wade’s fabricated “right” to abortion and finding race-based redistricting to be unlawful. They don’t care that those rulings adhere to the Constitution and what it calls for. The Supreme Court didn’t give them the outcomes they wanted, and therefore they believe they’re justified in threatening its members and changing its makeup.
Some Democrats aren’t as forthright as Harris in publicly backing their party’s insane court-packing plan. Leftist lunatics like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will wax poetic about legislative process to avoid providing a direct answer on the issue, while others like Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff will similarly dodge it by recycling corporate media’s judicial “ethics” smears. But regardless of what they say, the strategy the party plans to roll out should they reclaim power could not be clearer.
Political commentators have made the point that whichever party controls the U.S. Senate following the midterms will have significant power in deciding whether Trump gets to fill a potential Supreme Court vacancy (or two) over the next few years. And they’re right. But as Harris and Co.’s comments show, it’s so much bigger than that.
Reclaiming both chambers of Congress this fall would put Democrats in a prime position to win trifecta control in 2028 and give them the power needed to pack the court. Should they prove successful, it would turn one of the country’s last functioning institutions into another weapon to be used against their political enemies.
As voters cast their ballots this fall, they’re not just deciding which party will run Congress. They’re deciding whether America will have a legitimate Supreme Court or not.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood