Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono on Monday said she supports term limits for Supreme Court Justices, asking MSNBC'S "Hallie Jackson Reports," "why should anyone have lifetime appointments to any job?
"Therefore as part of the hearing on the shadow docket, I think there will be calls for term limits on the Supreme Court," she said.
But "a lot of people don't know what the shadow docket is."
The shadow docket allows for emergency proceedings to take place without lengthy written opinions or oral arguments. Often it is used to block a law temporarily while legal arguments are hashed out.
Recent shadow docket decisions include the eviction moratorium extension, Indiana University students' attempts to end COVID-19 vaccination requirements, and Texas' 'fetal heartbeat' abortion ban.
"I think we'll be hearing from scholars as to the abuse of the shadow docket by this Supreme Court because they've used the shadow docket to do the thing they just did, basically to overturn Roe v. Wade, 28 times in the Trump years and only four during the entire times of Bush and Obama," Hirono told MSNBC. "So there is in my view the abuse of power of the shadow docket and what's going to happen probably is more calls for court reform."
"We're going to do everything we can to codify Roe v. Wade at the federal level but also at the state level because it's the state legislators that are very busy, passing hundreds and hundreds of abortion limiting laws across the country and that is why people need to vote," she added. "They need to have legislators who are going to impose these kinds of draconian laws on women across the country, creating chaos, fear, chilling effect. We see what's happening in Texas already."
Hirono maintained that she would support term limits on the Supreme Court because "who gets a lifetime appointment or job security for anything? Why should the court be exempted? That's been my view for a while. We should have a debate on it."
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