Jonathan Turley: Democrats are ‘threatening retaliation’ — even impeachment — after Barrett confirmation

This week saw Amy Coney Barrett become the Supreme Court’s newest associate justice. However, that’s something some Democrats are already talking about changing.

At least one prominent anti-Trumper has even called for impeaching Barrett if she doesn’t recuse herself from election-related cases — an idea that constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley condemned as “unhinged” in a blistering op-ed for The Hill. Turley is a constitutional law professor at George Washington University and argued against the impeachment of President Donald Trump in testimony to the House last year.

Democrats threaten Barrett

“Democrats feel disrespected and are threatening acts of retaliation in changing the Senate or the Supreme Court” following the Republican-controlled Senate’s successful confirmation of Barrett, Turley wrote.

The legal scholar accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of going “full Tony Montana” for threatening “to use the potential Democratic majority to strip the rights of Republicans that he declared ‘forfeited’ in the confirmation.”

That would likely include abolishing the Senate filibuster. “But,” Turley went on to complain, “the most unhinged was the idea to impeach Amy Coney Barrett after she takes her seat.”

“This option was raised by columnist Norman Ornstein, who wrote that if she ‘immediately votes for voter suppression’ after rising to the Supreme Court, ‘she should quickly be impeached’ because President Trump ‘asked her openly to act to tilt the scales of the election.'”

Democrats promoting “conspiracy theory”

Turley noted, “It does not matter that Barrett denied such a conversation and that no one has an inkling of how she would vote on election challenges that have not even been filed.”

He pointed out that “citing a conspiracy theory based on her as a judicial shill is not a legal basis for recusal” but rather “an insult disguised as a demand.”

“Democrats are not talking about using their Senate majority in the same way should a Supreme Court vacancy arise, which would be fair action,” Turley explained.

Instead, the minority party is “talking about trashing the Senate rules, attacking the Supreme Court, or impeaching Barrett as the license of the victims turned victors.”

What’s more, Turley stressed that Democratic retaliation may not stop with Barret’s removal or a change to the Senate’s operating rules.

“With the latest nomination, Joe Biden declared the Supreme Court is out of whack,” he said of the Democratic presidential nominee’s recent proposal to create a commission on adding new justices. “Now something or someone is about to be whacked,” Turley concluded.

The post Jonathan Turley: Democrats are 'threatening retaliation' -- even impeachment -- after Barrett confirmation first appeared on Conservative Institute.