Attorney General Ashley Moody Warns President Biden’s Court-Packing Commission of the Dangers Posed by Expanding SCOTUS
By Space Coast Daily // May 19, 2021
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Attorney General Ashley Moody is warning President Joe Biden and members of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States about the dangers posed by court packing.
The commission will host its inaugural meeting online today. According to reports, commissioners will consider adding justices to SCOTUS—a political maneuver known as court packing that has helped unravel democracy and elevate totalitarian regimes in South American nations.
Ahead of today’s meeting, Attorney General Moody held a roundtable discussion with Venezuelan exiles, including Venezuelan Supreme Court Justices in exile, who fled the country to evade authoritarian rule supported by a politically-packed high court.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “I will not stand idly by while President Biden and other radicals ignore the historical travesties of court packing and the resulting demise of economies, rule of law and freedoms in other nations. Those who have witnessed firsthand the destruction of democracies and rise of dictators from these extremist attacks on a nation’s highest court must be allowed to testify before the commission in person.
“Our freedom and American democracy may depend on these voices being heard and the careful, thorough examination of historical facts. That is also why I felt compelled to personally provide comments to President Biden and his commission that is considering taking our independent judicial system down a very dangerous road.”
Attorney General Moody’s public comments implore the commission to fully examine the consequences of court packing, arguing that changes increasing the size of SCOTUS would undermine the rule of law, respect for the courts, the independence of our judiciary and could lead to devolution of the constitutional system—as seen in many South American nations:
“This Commission should hear from people like Antonio Marval, Chief Justice of the Venezuela Supreme Court in exile, or Roberto Marrero, an opposition leader and political prisoner from Venezuela. Both these gentlemen now live in Florida. Both would lay out in stark detail what happens when a president packs a supreme court to achieve the policies that he prefers. That is what happened in Venezuela, where almost overnight, the rule of law eroded and the country descended into dictatorship. The story of Venezuela is one of many, where once vibrant democracies devolved triggered largely by actions like the packing of courts.”
To read Attorney General Moody’s full public comments to the commission, click here.
Last month, Attorney General Moody demanded President Biden allow public access to every meeting of the commission. While the public will now be allowed to view the initial virtual meeting online, public testimony had to be filed prior to any discussion of the commission. To learn more, click here.
Additionally, Attorney General Moody led a multistate coalition of other attorneys general from across the nation in opposition to the recent steps President Biden and congressional leaders have taken toward packing the Supreme Court. To read the letter signed by 20 attorneys general, click here.
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