On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Don Lemon Tonight,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and gives the legislature broader ability to make laws on abortion by wondering, “why should people who were appointed 40 years ago be making decisions today for our democracy about fundamental rights?” And reacted to both the Dobbs decision and the court’s ruling in the EPA case that the EPA couldn’t adopt broad regulations on power plant emissions because it hadn’t received the statutory authority from Congress by stating that it’s “the American people who get to decide about fundamental rights and get to decide about the Constitution, get to direct policy about climate.”
Khanna said, “The reason we have Congress make these decisions is that they are more representative. They have representatives from black communities, from Latino communities, from around the country. You have a court that is completely unrepresentative, that is not elected, and for six unelected people to make decisions on climate and take that power away from Congress, take that power away from the president, who is appointing the EPA, is just flat-out wrong. And this is a court that’s disconnected and really is abrogating to itself power and taking it away from democratic decision-making.”
He added, “I’ve come out for term limits, and the president’s own commission has suggested term limits. I mean, why should people who were appointed 40 years ago be making decisions today for our democracy about fundamental rights?”
Khanna concluded, “It’s we, the people, the American people who get to decide about fundamental rights and get to decide about the Constitution, get to direct policy about climate. It’s not unelected justices who are taking away too much power.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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