“Avoiding the filibuster would require a process that allows for very substantive debate by the Senate minority,” Whitehouse said.
We don’t want to give Republicans multiple foot-dragging and filibusters, so filibuster-proof bills will almost certainly include permanent reproductive rights, permanently restored voting rights, getting rid of corrupt billionaire dark money, reforming the Supreme Court, and other bills that would have a fantastic tailwind if they moved.
Whitehouse’s declaration came after President Joe Biden and Harris called for limiting Supreme Court justices’ terms to 18 years. In an interview with The Dispatch, Whitehouse said Harris would support his bill, which Republicans and even some Democrats have said is unconstitutional and simply adds to the court with a different name.
“They’re not saying, ‘We support your bill,’ they’re saying your bill is exactly what we’re talking about,” he told media.
“As we do these things, it is all subject to the will of the Senate and the House and the opinion of the president,” Whitehouse added. “The intent is that we don’t want this to seem like an immediate targeting of judges.”
Republicans and even Democrats have denounced the bill. Adam White, a legal scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who Biden appointed to the presidential commission on the Supreme Court, said: Written In July, the Supreme Court warned that “any legislation aimed at disqualifying individual judges from office is unconstitutional.”
