BELLEVUE, WA – The proposal by four anti-gun Capitol Hill Democrats to pack the U.S. Supreme Court by adding four positions is “an outrage” and an attempt to prevent the high court from accepting cases and handing down rulings favorable to the right to keep and bear arms, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, New York Congressmen Jerrold Nadler and Mondaire Jones, and Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson announced the “Judiciary Act of 2021.” Nadler insisted it is not an attempt to “pack” the high court.
But SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb responded, “That’s a lie, and they know it. Markey, Nadler and their cronies are furious that the Supreme Court now has a majority of justices who are determined to adhere to the Constitution instead of rewriting it from the bench to advance an anti-gun-rights agenda.
“This is,” he added, “an attempt to overturn the Supreme Court’s landmark Heller and McDonald rulings affirming the individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
Former President Donald Trump was able to fill three high court vacancies with highly-qualified Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Their ascension to the high court could open the door to review of Second Amendment cases dealing with such important subjects as the right to bear arms in public, and whether popular semi-automatic rifles—now in common use across the country—are protected by the amendment.
“Those are gun rights issues that anti-gunners such as Markey and Nadler, and their Capitol Hill cohorts, absolutely do not want the Supreme Court to consider,” Gottlieb said. “For decades, gun prohibitionists have been fearful that good Second Amendment cases would wind up before a court populated by solid constitutionalists. Now, with the court’s present makeup, those same anti-gunners are terrified of a majority they perceive to be pro-Second Amendment and they’ve introduced this sham legislation in an effort to prevent a ruling that would favor America’s gun owners.
“Frankly,” Gottlieb continued, “it is not simply disappointing but disgraceful that a cadre of anti-gun lawmakers would introduce such a thinly disguised scheme to turn the Supreme Court into a judicial branch of the anti-gun-rights Democratic caucus. Markey’s claim that this is an effort to repair a broken Supreme Court is preposterous. For the first time in decades, the Court is well prepared to handle important constitutional issues, and all the Democrats can think of doing is to seize the court in a legislative power grab.
“If they proceed,” he promised, “we’ll see them—no pun intended—in court.”
About SAF
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 700,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.