7/19/2024

Former President Donald Trump chooses a running mate with a history of election denialism. President Joe Biden reportedly plans to endorse reforms for the U.S. Supreme Court amid calls for more accountability on the bench. And Trump’s Georgia case stalls while his legal team tries to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis.

Trump chooses Sen. JD Vance as his vice president

Former President Donald Trump announced his much-anticipated pick for vice president, choosing freshman Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate.

Predictably, Vance, author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” who was elected to Congress in 2022, “has a long history of supporting conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election and anti-voting laws and policies,” Democracy Docket’s Matt Cohen wrote this week.

Cohen points to an ABC News interview in February in which Vance told George Stephanopoulos that, had he been in former Vice President Mike Pence’s position during the 2020 election, he would not have certified Joe Biden’s win. Pence faced pressure from the Trump campaign to block certification on Jan. 6, 2021, culminating in the U.S. Capitol riot that endangered Pence’s life.

More recently, Vance wouldn’t fully commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election when asked by CNN’s Dana Bash. Read more about Vance’s history of election denialism and anti-voting rhetoric.

Biden to back SCOTUS term limits, other reforms, reports say

President Biden is expected to announce proposals that would reform the nation’s highest court, including term limits for justices and a stronger ethics code, news outlets reported this week.

Biden reportedly revealed in a call with progressive lawmakers that he’s been working with experts on measures he plans to announce soon.

It’s no secret that the Court has been under fire, largely due to a slate of anti-democratic decisions and questionable ethical conduct from Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) have publicly criticized the Court for what they’ve described as a failure to hold justices accountable for ethical improprieties. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) recently launched an impeachment case against Alito and Thomas.

The proposals would mark Democrats’ most aggressive push yet for reforming the U.S. Supreme Court, and reflect a new stance from Biden, who has historically been reluctant to endorse court reform measures. Notably, in 2021, Biden established a commission of experts to study the court reform debate, and issued its final report in December of that year.

Read more about the growing calls to reform the U.S. Supreme Court and

Ocasio-Cortez’s impeachment effort against Alito and Thomas.

Georgia case stalls as Trump seeks Willis’s disqualification

The Georgia election interference indictment against Trump will likely extend far past the 2024 election as his legal team seeks to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from the case.

The Georgia Court of Appeals will hold oral argument Dec. 5 on the matter of whether Willis’s relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade amounts to a conflict of interest for Willis. Earlier this year, Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee determined that either Willis or Wade must step down but didn’t think the relationship warranted Willis’s disqualification.

Wade ultimately resigned, and Trump and his co-defendants appealed McAfee’s decision. On June 5, the state appeals court, after accepting the case, indefinitely postponed the trial against Trump and his co-defendants.

The delay comes as Trump has notched several small wins in the indictments against him. The federal classified documents case was dismissed this week. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this month that former presidents are entitled to presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, complicating the Department of Justice’s election subversion case against him. And, the immunity decision has given Trump an avenue to challenge his New York conviction.

Read more about the indictments against Trump and why his New York sentencing was postponed.

OPINION: The Supreme Court Only Cares About the Wealthy and Powerful

If you aren’t already wealthy and powerful, the U.S Supreme Court doesn’t care about you, Democracy Docket guest author Keith Thirion wrote. “That must be our major takeaway from the 2023–24 term, because it not only explains almost every egregious decision the Court made, but also speaks to why the current ethics corruption on the Court is such an urgent concern.” Read more here.

What We’re Doing

Democracy Docket News Editor Sally Holtgrieve is engrossed in her advanced copy of “ANTIDEMOCRATIC” by investigative reporter David Daley. The book reveals the urgent story of a 50-year Republican plot to end the Voting Rights Act.

“From the bowels of Reagan’s DOJ to the walls of the conservative Federalist Society to the moneyed Republican resources bankrolling restrictive voting laws today, Daley reveals a hidden history as sweeping as it is troubling.”

Sally agrees with U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who said, “If you love democracy and want to fight for it, read this book and know thine enemy.” The book comes out Aug. 6 and is available for preorder.

It’s clear that there are issues with the U.S. Supreme Court. From justices accepting lavish gifts to the shadow docket to outrageous rulings, immense reform is needed to ensure that faith and trust is restored in the nation’s highest court. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse discusses the most pressing issues facing the Court and how we fix them. Watch on YouTube here.