Brian Fallon, a former spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, celebrated Democrats’ victories in the Georgia runoffs for U.S. Senate on Tuesday by urging his party to “eliminate the filibuster,” make D.C. a state, and pack the courts.
Fallon’s organization, Demand Justice, has been pushing for the expansion of the federal judiciary for months. The idea is to increase the number of federal judges and then fill the vacancies with liberal appointees, as President Jimmy Carter did.
The filibuster is a procedural rule that requires the Senate to obtain 60 votes (out of 100) to close debate and proceed to a vote. Democrats eliminated the filibuster for most judges and executive appointees. After Democrats filibustered Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Republicans ended the filibuster for nominees for the nation’s highest court. Many Democrats now want to eliminate the filibuster for ordinary legislation — which includes bills structuring the courts.
Fallon also referred to a proposal to grant statehood to much of what is currently the District of Columbia. Adding a 51st state in the staunchly left-wing city would also add two Democratic members to the U.S. Senate, making it much more difficult for Republicans to oppose Democratic legislation, or to win the majority back again in future Senate elections.
The Democrat-controlled House approved D.C. statehood last year; the Republican Senate declined to take up the issue.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.