Rep. Jayapal: I’m Really Distressed that the Supreme Court Is Starting to Overturn Lower Courts

CABRERA: “Congresswoman, you are on the Judiciary Committee, so I want to get your reaction to some new comments from Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was asked in a recent interview if she thinks the country is in a constitutional crisis. And her response, quote, ‘I think the Constitution is alive and well.’ Adding, ‘I don’t know what a constitutional crisis would look like. I don’t think that we are currently in a constitutional crisis, however.’ And she went on to say that the country remains committed to the rule of law with functioning courts. Your thoughts?”
Jayapal: “Well, my thoughts are that I’m really distressed that the Supreme Court is starting to overturn lower courts. In fact, I was just reading an article where several federal judges are saying, you know, we have also been entrusted with upholding the law. And when the Supreme Court just gives a one sentence overturn of the lower courts, it is essentially taking a lot of power away from the lower courts to rule and centralizing that power in a Supreme Court that people really don’t have faith in. I mean, this Supreme Court has corrupt justices who people understand have been bought and paid for by wealthy corporations, wealthy individuals, billionaire donors who give RVs and luxury trips to those justices with no enforcement of any kind of ethics laws. And so I do think — I think, you know, the word constitutional crisis is complicated. And I think we are on the brink of — of a constitutional crisis because we have a Supreme Court that continues to overturn lower court rulings, continues to allow the president an excessive overreach of power. That’s what we’re seeing every day, whether it’s the military in the streets against U.S. people on U.S. soil, whether it’s the kidnapping of — of children, of individuals by masked men, the deportation of people, the — the overturning of Supreme Court decisions, sort of taking it to the brink, Ana, where you have these situations — and I know you’ve covered this so much on immigration where people are deported and then we have to turn planes around if we can even get them turned around. Direct — you know, directly controverting those orders.”
CABRERA: “And we’re going to, in fact, tease just in a moment here an interview related to some of those immigration actions. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, thank you very much for taking the time.”