Biden is establishing radical leftist, anti-Constitution control over the federal judiciary
One of the things leftists have done very successfully over the decades is to use the federal judiciary to impose leftist policies that Americans don’t want (which is why legislatures don't pass them) or that violate the Constitution. Nothing more clearly reflects this fact than Roe v. Wade, which found an imaginary right to abortion under the Constitution. During his four years in the White House, Trump was able to slow this abuse of our judicial system but, as with everything else Trump did, Joe Biden has entirely undone it. He’s appointing record numbers of judges to the federal system, and his latest pick for the Second Circuit shows just how bad this is.
Article III of the Constitution creates the judiciary and it’s barebones stuff. Section 1 provides, “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Section 2 lists the types of cases the Founders envisioned coming before the federal system:
The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;—between a State and Citizens of another State,—between Citizens of different States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.
Nowhere does it give the federal courts the overarching power over constitutional interpretation. Instead, that started with Chief Justice John Marshall, who, in Marbury v. Madison (1803), made up out of whole cloth the newly discovered right to determine what is and is not constitutional. Since then, it’s been endless mission creep, with the federal judiciary arrogating to itself more and more power and, essentially, taking on the role of an unelected legislature that always leans left.
Image: Maria Araujo Kahn. Public domain.
The Founders should have known better. In Antifederalist Paper 17, the author (now identified as Robert Yates) warned against an unfettered federal judiciary. He was prescient. Sadly, when it comes to an uncontrolled judiciary, that’s the way leftists like it.
Since entering the White House only two years ago, Biden has confirmed 105 judicial nominees, leaving in the dust the records of the last three presidents at this point in their administrations. These confirmations include Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has an affinity for the travails of pedophiles but has no idea what constitutes a woman.
When it comes to these elusive “women creatures,” though, the Biden administration and the media want them on the bench, especially if they’re not white:
More than three-quarters of Biden's confirmed nominees are women and more than two-thirds of them are non-white, according to Senate Democrats, who also tout how Biden's choices for the judiciary stretch beyond prosecutors to include public defenders, civil rights attorneys and more.
Education, intelligence, and judicial temperament are irrelevant.
In January, Sen. John Kennedy (R. LA) asked questions revealing that Spokane County Superior Court Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren, whom Biden wanted for the Eastern District of Washington, had no idea what is in the Constitution. With Maria Araujo Kahn, whom Biden has nominated for the Second Circuit (encompassing New York), Biden has taken it one step further: Kahn doesn’t care about the Constitution, which she clearly views as defective and in need of a judge’s unilateral amendment.
The bee in Kahn’s bonnet is speech. She really hates microaggressions (that is, nonexistent insults that offend hypersensitive people trained to view themselves as victims) and believes that the narrow limitations on fighting words should be expanded dramatically to words that offend only a hypersensitive auditor. She’s also obsessed with racial identity (a given). A less judicial temperament and less reverence for the Constitution it’s impossible to imagine. I’ve included below a chilling Twitter thread exposing just how bad Kahn is.
Our federal judiciary has way too much power. Since at least Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, unelected leftists have been making decisions that have ripped America apart by completely bypassing our representative government. It’s to be hoped that Kahn’s racial radicalism and open hostility to the Constitution is a bridge too far even for the leftist-controlled Senate, but I’m not optimistic. The greatest likelihood is that she’ll perjure herself by taking an oath swearing to uphold the Constitution she disdains.
Now an associate justice on the Connecticut State Supreme Court, Maria Araujo Kahn suggested in a 2020 opinion that courts should criminalize speech that offends "oppressed groups."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
To prepare for one of those trainings, participants were instructed to watch an animated video, "How Microaggressions Are Like Mosquito Bites," that depicts a man-sized mosquito telling a dark-hued college student to "try a less challenging major" and then sucking him dry. pic.twitter.com/JWo5ZEseTP
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
The video then cuts to a mosquito holding a gun next to a dead body. "I felt threatened," the insect tells officers at the scene of the crime. "It looked like he was up to trouble, ok?" pic.twitter.com/ZjDxLhBQny
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
The revelations could prove a last minute stumbling block for Kahn, who in September sailed through the Senate judiciary committee with little pushback. A final vote on her nomination could come as soon as next week.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
In a 2020 opinion, Kahn argued for broadening the "fighting words" exception to the First Amendment—which bans speech likely to spark violence—on the grounds that some groups are unlikely or unable to physically retaliate against insults.https://t.co/2CcJy5Y098
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
Though Kahn is vague on how exactly she would reform First Amendment law, the opinion laments that bigots can "verbally assault certain oppressed groups"—especially women and the disabled—"without fear of criminal prosecution."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
In 2019, it ruled on 1A grounds that Donald Trump could not block critics from his personal Twitter account. If Kahn joins the Second Circuit, she could hear challenges to NY’s controversial social media law, which requires platforms to report "hateful conduct" to the state.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
Last year, for example, the Washington State Supreme Court flipped the burden of proof for claims of racial bias in civil trials, forcing attorneys accused of stereotyping to show that their language did not activate any juror’s "implicit bias." https://t.co/KSJrNKlM93
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
Kahn isn’t the only radical Biden nom. Rebecca Slaughter, whom Biden this month renominated to the FTC, suggested the United States take a page from South Africa and integrate "racial equity" into antitrust law, going after businesses with "racially skewed" ownership.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023
Biden has also nominated Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, the legal director of the ACLU’s Illinois chapter, to serve on a New York district court. In 2019, Choudhury told an audience at Princeton that police shoot unarmed black men every day. https://t.co/kRPZsM7LQA
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 24, 2023