46. Judicial reforms, ending the filibuster, and DC statehood

When we first checked in with Demand Justice executive director Brian Fallon, back in March, he it made clear that “[i]f we go to the trouble of getting rid of the filibuster to pass H.R. 1 … but then we forget to do anything about the structural problem of the judiciary that has been utterly ‘Trumpified’ over the years, then these judges will just overturn all these proposals and gut the new Voting Rights Act the way they gutted the original Voting Rights Act.” In other words, if we didn’t do something about the court system, all the legislation in the world would simply die at the hands of those Trumpy judges. Well here we are and not much has been done. But Brian explains it is not all doom and gloom, there is some hope, and there have been some positive changes in how once conservative court watchers feel about expanding the court.