Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer to the studio.
At the end of the third hour, Brewer weighed in on Joe Biden’s recent vague answer to court-packing and explained how he himself is not in favor of any one party having a judiciary leg up on the other or making changes to a 150 year old working institution.
Leahy: We’re here with All-Star panelist Clint Brewer. Clint, I have a comment from Michael G.W. His last name is G.W. who frequently sends me emails and I’m gonna give you this comment from him to see if you react to this. He said, Mike if Trump goes down there will be no Supreme Court as the judicial branch ever again and the promising career of Michael Michael Patrick Leahy will be over and history will end because it will be written by George Soros. (Laughs) What do you think of Michael G.W.’s comment there?
Brewer: It might be a little much. (Leahy chuckles) Yeah. I mean, you know we discussed in the break, you know FDR tried to pack the court.
Leahy: He did. Yeah, he wanted to add five I think it was.
Brewer: I think it was about six to make sure the New Deal didn’t get struck.
Leahy: Exactly.
Brewer: And you know, the Supreme Court’s makeup was established just after the Civil War.
Leahy: It’s been nine since 1869. And it’s not the Constitution. It’s an act of Congress.
Brewer: And I’m not saying we should genuflect to tradition, but it’s not broken. So why fixed it?
Leahy: It’s been 51 years.
Brewer: It’s it’s been one of the most pivotal institutions. It truly has been a check and balance on both the executive and legislative branches of this country for a very long time. And an effective one. And it has you know through history changed and moved with the country. I just don’t see any reason for this. I mean, you know look, the Democrats lost an election.
And Republicans lose elections. And you know in the past the court has been made up of primarily Democratic appointees. And right now it’s just going to be heavy with Republicans for some time. I think it’s dangerous, broadly dangerous to try to you know, make sweeping changes simply because you don’t like the outcomes of elections.
Leahy: Now, Joe Biden has been asked this many times. Kamala Harris has been asked this many times. Will you favor or oppose efforts to pack the court that adds more members to the Supreme Court so you can get more liberals on it? They’ve dodged those answers except yesterday in Ohio. Joe Biden said something a little bit less not exactly a total dodge, but pretty much a dodge. What was he saying up there?
Brewer: He said he’s not a fan of it.
Leahy: He said he’s not a fan. What does that mean?
Brewer: I don’t know. Is this the same way George W. Bush was not a fan of broccoli? I mean, I don’t know what that means. What does he not a fan of? (Laughs) I don’t get it. I mean I know what he’s saying, but it’s not a very strong statement.
Leahy: It’s not definitive. I will not support court-packing.
Brewer: Right. I’m just not looking just as a voter but as an American and as a patriot. I am not in favor of either party radically changing systems of government to suit themselves, simply because they lost an election and they’re mad about it. Republicans shouldn’t do it. Democrats shouldn’t do it. Nobody should. I would read into this.
Leahy: If Joe Biden that answer to me basically says I am packing the court buddy.
Brewer: It leaves a little wiggle room doesn’t it? It leaves it open.
Leahy: It says I’m packing the court. Now let’s talk about this. What would happen to the country? How would the country respond and how would Tennesseans’ respond if as I predict, if Biden winds and the Democrats win the Senate and keep the House. My prediction is that within a hundred days they will pack the court and add s four to six new members. All liberals. And destroy a hundred fifty years of precedent and turn the Supreme Court into a super-legislature as opposed to a judiciary body. How will Tennesseans’ react to that Clint?
Brewer: Well, I, you know, I think it’ll take some time for people to understand what it means. I think it will also depend largely, let’s just say it happens. It’ll depend largely on who the people are they pack it with and what their records are. And how far to the left or how close to the middle they are. How objectionable they may be to conservative voters. How objectionable they may be to conservative voters of both parties. There are Democrats who are closer to the middle than there are to the left.
Leahy: Where are they? Are they out rioting in Portland these days? Where are those folks?
Brewer: So I don’t know where they are. Things will have to play out. But I mean, you know, when you see radical shifts in policy, not even policy. That’s not even policy. That’s an underpinning.
Leahy: An institutional underpinning.
Brewer: I mean, you know, the thing that occurs to me is I think of the assault weapons ban under Clinton and how galvanized rightly or wrongly a group of Americans who you know brought in the Republican sweep of ’94. And if Democrats were to misplay this should they actually do it should Biden win? Because they’re gonna have to win the Senate also to do it, right? I mean, they can’t just win the White House. That doesn’t get it.
Leahy: It could be a perfect storm of awful though. It could be.
Brewer: It could be if they run the table and they win the White House and then the Senate and they keep the House. Which they’re going to keep the House. And they actually at that point I think maybe their appetite for it lessens because they will have complete control of the federal government other than the court. And I think probably the appetite to do that lessens a lot. They will have a lot more to handle.
Leahy: I don’t think so. I think they’ll double down and try to crush Republicans and conservatives forever. That’s somewhat. I think they’re going to
Brewer: I think they’ll take some polls and find out what people think firsthand what are the ramifications. Because here’s the thing, lighting upon a nominee for the Supreme Court is is incredibly difficult at best and particularly because there aren’t a lot. I mean, you know, you just had four years of a very active Senate appointing federal judges. They don’t have a lot of, no pun intended, bench to appoint from at this point. I mean the Democrats.
Leahy: You mean the Democrats. I don’t think that matters. They’ll just go into the phone book of left-wing young attorneys and just pick six.
Brewer: And that’s the point. There’s a lot of risk in that.
Leahy: Well Clint so we have actually just a few more times of your being here before we have an election.
Brewer: I know.
Leahy: Three weeks. So we’ll see what happens in the next week. We’ll see if the debate happens here in Nashville next Tuesday. I think it’ll happen. But we’ll see.
Brewer: I think it’ll happen.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photos “Donald Trump” by The White House and “Joe Biden” by The White House. Background Photo “Supreme Court” by TexasGOPVote.com CC BY 2.0.
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