The announcement comes amid a flurry of Democratic activity related to reshaping the high court, which includes forthcoming proposals from President Biden to limit justices’ terms and enact a binding ethics code, legislation capping gifts to justices, and a referral of Justice Clarence Thomas to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. The initiative will be called the Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit Brennan Center has often supported liberal positions on voting, criminal justice, money in politics and other law and policy issues. It was founded in 1995 and named after Justice William J. Brennan Jr., a liberal lion, and has a staff of about 160. Brennan’s president, Michael Waldman, directed speechwriting for President Bill Clinton and served on the 2021 panel convened by Biden that examined Supreme Court reform and issued a lengthy report.
Kohlberg, 66, a California resident, said he had no legal background and has not previously given money to court-related issues. He said he grew concerned with the direction of the court after the Citizens United decision in 2010 that loosened restrictions on campaign finance and was dismayed about what he called the court’s lack of response to recent ethics controversies, including Thomas’s refusal to recuse himself from some election-related cases after his wife pushed to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
But Kohlberg, who describes himself as a moderate who has voted for Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, said a tipping point came July 1, when the justices granted former president Donald Trump — and all future presidents — broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
“The Constitution is the backbone of the country. It’s critical that we have a court that follows it,” Kohlberg said. “It’s critical that we have a court that believes and adjudicates that no man is above the law. The immunity decisions cuts into that. … The court has lost its way, and it has lost the support of the country.”
The Kohlberg Center will advocate term limits for justices and a stronger code of ethics than the one enacted last year by the Supreme Court, Kohlberg and Waldman said. The code adopted by the court was largely panned by judicial ethics experts as weak and unenforceable.
The center will also explore other changes, such as how the court handles emergency cases sometimes described as the “shadow docket”; giving Congress legislative tools to respond quickly to rulings by the justices; and constraining the court’s ability to curb regulation on the environment, public health and financial markets.
It will convene meetings of scholars, hold public symposiums, publish policy reports and advocate specific proposals before Congress.
“The goal is to build public support and public understanding and scholarly depth with the hope going forward there will be bipartisan support when possible for reforms of various kinds,” Waldman said. The initiative begins immediately, with operations in New York City and Washington.
Pamela S. Karlan, co-director of Stanford University Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, said the center appeared to be a novel development in the academic landscape and a sign of the ferment around the high court. She said there’s already much being done in terms of scholarship on Supreme Court reform, but the center could be effective in other aspects of the push for overhaul.
“The Brennan Center is interesting creature in and of itself,” Karlan said. “It’s much more a public interest law firm. Coming up with a strategy to mobilize the public is in their wheelhouse.”
Even though the public officials calling for accountability at the high court are overwhelmingly Democrats, public support for change at times has spanned the political spectrum.
A recent Fox News poll showed roughly 80 percent of voters supported a mandatory retirement age for justices and 18-year term limits. Those numbers rose dramatically after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years. The same poll showed the public approval of the Supreme Court at a record low.
Read More: $30 million gift will fund center to push for Supreme Court overhaul