"There is nothing left to wait for"
"There is nothing left to wait for"
The egregious abortion ruling was the point of no return
Welcome to the big Sunday edition of Progressives Everywhere!
Last week offered a Choose Your Own Adventure of natural disasters, political calamities, and human rights outrages. Hurricane Ida wreaking havoc on Louisiana and up the east coast, the Supreme Court’s outrageous abortion decision, the Texas GOP passing its extreme voter suppression law, the corporate Democrat hatcheting of the Biden budget, the continued murder surge of Covid infections encouraged by Republicans… the list goes on. And while they seem like distinct and disparate travesties and tragedies, they were all either enabled or exacerbated by structural imbalances in our political system, which concentrates power in the hands of a small cabal of conservative extremists.
Today’s big story is all about the single-best way that we can fix this decades-in-the-making emergency. And in honor of Labor Day, we’ll look at some important headlines that should give us some hope for worker power and economic justice in this time of great inequality.
Amazing news: We have raised over $30,000 for 13 abortion funds and two progressive legal organizations as of 8 pm EST Sunday evening. Thank you so much to everyone that has donated — let’s keep the momentum going!
It was always going to come to this.
Last fall, progressive Democrats, anticipating a wipeout election victory, began to talk about reforming and expanding the Supreme Court. The idea was downplayed by party leadership and then all but dismissed this spring by the conservative wing of what turned out to be a paper-thin Congressional majority. But in the wake of recent events, the idea has emerged once again, and with far more urgency.
“I think a lot of Democrats, both lawmakers and more broadly, when it comes to the question of Supreme Court reform or expansion, have had this sort of wait and see approach: Let's wait to see what the Supreme Court looks like, let’s wait and see what the Biden commission comes up with,’” Christopher Kang, a former top Obama administration legal official and the co-founder of Demand Justice, tells Progressives Everywhere. “And after the Court's rulings this week, there is nothing left to wait for. We’ve seen all that we need to see.”
The far-right Supreme Court’s decision to allow Texas’s draconian abortion ban to take effect on Wednesday should prove to be the tipping point. Whereas establishment liberals once produced reams of op-eds predicting that the post-Trump Roberts court would blunt its conservative streak by respecting essential precedents and preserving our most fundamental rights, the uncompromising Republican drive to dismantle free society is now undeniable.
As Deputy Counsel to President Obama, Kang shepherded the successful high court confirmations of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elana Kagan. Both are brilliant, history-making jurists who have now been reduced into the sad ritual of writing scorched-earth dissents that go viral for unassailable legal arguments and impassioned moral appeals that hold no sway with a majority hellbent on remaking the country in the vision of the far-right billionaires and foundations that bankrolled their careers.
Demand Justice’s solution is simple: Significantly expand circuit courts and add four seats to the Supreme Court, transformations justified not just by today’s unprecedented attack on democracy but also by the history of the court itself. On Friday, Kang offered more insight into the plan, the ongoing GOP threat, and where he sees the politics within the party headed on what should be a slam dunk issue.
We spoke this winter about Demand Justice’s plan to expand the court system. The Judiciary Act of 2021 has several major House co-sponsors, Sen. Ed Markey introduced it in the Senate. But it didn’t get much support right away. Have you seen a major uptick in interest since the Supreme Court’s decision on the Texas abortion ban?
People are understanding that this Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v Wade in the middle of the night in an opinion that they didn’t even sign. Not only is this horrific on its own merits, but like, what does it say for every other right or policy or issue that we care about? There's this awakening moment. A lot of people are responding by helping women and pregnant people in Texas and demanding that we codify Roe, and those are very right and important responses, but we’re also moving towards the need to address the fundamental problem, which is the Supreme Court itself.
Senator Tina Smith came out in support of expanding the court. And she's certainly not going to be the last one that recognizes that when you take a step back and you look at what this Court has done, and what it means for what's to come, that we really don't have any other choice, but to restore balance and legitimacy to the court by expanding it.
[Note: Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke out in favor of expanding the court on Sunday.]
This wasn’t technically a classic Supreme Court decision — at first, the abortion ban went into effect because they didn’t do anything at all, and then they upheld it for now with a quick opinion on the “shadow docket.” So how much is that process, which is being utilized all the time now, part of the problem?
So I think it's incredibly important. But just last week it was the court imposing itself on an immigration policy, the Remain in Mexico policy, and forcing the Biden government to reinstate the policy that even Trump had left dormant for months. And then it was overturning the eviction ban in the middle of a pandemic. The court does this on the shadow docket because it can and I think that it really illuminates just how much raw power the court believes it has, because nobody reins it in. And I think it just makes everything they're doing so much more obscene.
The shadow docket is fundamentally in need of reform, but at the end of the day, the shadow docket is not the problem; it’s how these justices are using the shadow docket. So reforms could start with the shadow docket, but that's certainly not where the solution is going to end.
Do you anticipate other states to copy the Texas law?
I certainly think that other states are going to copy this approach [Florida Republicans have already promised to do so]. We also can't lose sight of just how crazy this approach is. In an effort to get away from courts reviewing it, to allow for this vigilante system of bounty hunting, it's crazy. I’m sure that other states will do it, but it also sort of obscures what I think is really going to happen in the next year, which is the Supreme Court has been asked to overturn Roe v Wade in this Mississippi case.
So for all of these people trying to pretend that Roe v Wade has not been overturned — it’s been effectively overturned and not literally overturned, but that's coming by the end of the year. And so even in states that don't copy this bounty hunter regime, a lot of states have triggered laws [banning abortion] on the books.
And so I think we really are going to get to a place, maybe as soon as June, where the right to an abortion is not just dependent on whether a state chooses to implement the same scheme as Texas. A Supreme Court decision is going to automatically trigger laws already on the books in many states that ban abortion. And I think it's just going to be horrific across the country.
Whereas a lot of wealthier Democratic donors don’t ultimately care about working class people enough to be willing to pay more in taxes, abortion is this issue that even the most “elite” donors and foundation board members care about. Do you think ending Roe, effectively now or officially through the Mississippi case, will be enough to move certain senators who have refused to consider changing the filibuster, let alone expanding the court?
I think the Senate is on a clear collision course with the filibuster. I don't think the filibuster can withstand all of this, from voting rights to all of the economic things that the Democrats want to do, to no access to abortion. For all of these things, something has to give, and so I think at that point, once the filibuster is gone, then there's a different conversation to be had about court reform and adding seats. When the filibuster is in the rearview mirror, we can have a real conversation about whether or not a majority of the Senate is willing to do what it takes to preserve our democracy with respect to the court.
And yet as the infrastructure bill situation indicates, Democrats don’t often like to go all the way on something — it’s a lot of compromising and half-measures. There’s been some discussion of expanding the lower courts, which Trump loaded up with right-wing judges. Could you imagine that being a compromise they come to?
I think the need for lower court expansion is completely separate. Even John Roberts thinks that they need to add more judgeships. I don't think that that's truly the scope of what the judiciary needs in order to administer justice, but that's completely different and I would never consider or concede that it's even a half step toward what’s needed, even if some people might try to posture as such.
I think that the Democrats will have to think about whether or not the other sort of big picture court reform question is what kinds of issues the court should be allowed to hear. Limiting the jurisdiction of the court may be a temporary measure before you get to expanding the court. For example, that could mean limiting the court’s ability to consider aspects of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
There may be other pieces of this that sort of get you there in the meantime, but I do think sooner or later, and I hope it’s sooner, Democrats are going to realize these half-measures are not going to solve the underlying problem in the court. But I agree with you that Supreme Court expansion is probably not going to be the first piece of court reform legislation that the Senate considers, but hopefully it does focus on the Supreme Court itself and not just lowers its ambitions to lower courts.
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Workers’ Rights and Economic Justice
National: Unions are cool again! A new poll finds that 68% of Americans have a favorable opinion of organized labor, making it more popular with the general public than at any point since 1965. Union membership has plummeted since then, down to just 9% of workers, which just goes to show you how much people hate their bosses and the billionaires that became even more fabulously wealthy during the pandemic.
Notably, 72% of young adults 18-34 approve of unions and 77% of adults making $40k or less annually view them in a favorable light.
Pennsylvania: Once a labor hotbed thanks to a stronghold of unionized steel and coal workers, those industries’ long-term declines caused Pennsylvania’s once sky-high union worker density to fall to a record low in 2019. Now, the emergence of organizing campaigns in fields not traditionally unionized are beginning to turn around what once seemed like an irreversible slide:
According to the National Labor Relations Board, the five biggest union drives in Pennsylvania over the past two years were in workplaces far different from coal mines or steel mills.
Instead, workers voted to form unions at a hospital, a university and a museum. There also were union pushes among public defenders and workers who care for people with disabilities.
All were successful, adding more than 1,800 union members to the state’s total.
There are now nearly 720,000 unionized workers in the state, which is good for 13.5% of active employees.
Wisconsin: Another traditional labor stronghold, unions were hit even harder in Wisconsin, where a deliberate and pernicious campaign overseen by former GOP Gov. Scott Walker and his gerrymandered majority rigged laws and handed bad corporate actors billions of dollars between 2011 and 2018. But just like in Pennsylvania, labor is also bouncing back in the Badger State.
Organizing is on the upswing there. The Colectivo Coffee workers just won the largest coffee chain union in the country, nurses at the UW Hospital system have broad public support for their recognition campaign, and museum workers have also recently won first contracts.
MLB: The San Francisco have been an unexpected juggernaut this season, with an 86-50 record as of Sunday evening that has them tied for first place in the NL West. Players are treated to top-class facilities by billionaire co-owner and ardent Trump supporter Charles B. Johnson, but workers at the stadium aren’t nearly so fortunate. At least 20 concession workers at Oracle Park have tested positive for Covid-19 this season, and frustrated with the ongoing lack of healthy and safety precautions, they voted to authorize a strike on Sunday morning.
The workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 2, decided to work tonight’s nationally televised game against the Dodgers, but should they not come to an agreement with their vendor employer, it could mean a walkout during the next home stand.
Medicaid expansion: In the dozen states where Republicans still refuse to expand Medicaid, lawmakers and activists are calling Democrats in Congress to create a national health care plan to cover the working poor being stonewalled by GOP cruelty. The Florida Democratic Congressional delegation recently wrote a letter asking Nancy Pelosi to pass such a plan, while Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly did so on Thursday.
If Democrats were to pass such a program, nearly 850,000 working Floridians would become eligible for free health care and 165,000 Kansans would finally be able to see a doctor.
Voting Rights
North Carolina: A mass restoration of voting rights hit a snag on Friday when an appeals court put a freeze on a trial ruling that declared the state’s ex-felon disenfranchisement law unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court will likely make the ultimate call on this case. The voting rights of at least 55,000 people hang in the balance.
Ohio: As Republicans push another voter suppression bill, a new registration purge is also in the offing. Fun!
Michigan: Despite winning statewide elections in both 2018 and 2020, Democrats still got blown out in legislative and Congressional races thanks to gigantic GOP gerrymanders. Much of that gerrymandering was done through packing Black voters into a few districts, and fixing that grossly racist and unequal situation is one of the main focuses of the state’s new independent redistricting commission.
Texas: They’re not done yet! Fresh off passing their own long-delayed super-suppression bill, Texas Republicans are now trying to sneak in another bill that would authorize the kind of sloppy partisan election “audit” that’s still somehow playing out in Arizona. Worse, it would allow audits of both the 2020 election as well as future elections.
Meanwhile, voters’ rights groups are already challenging SB 1, the flagship suppression bill that just passed last week, in court.
Filibuster: Want to read the worst story you’ll read this month? Here you go!
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