Nebraska AG Peterson signs letter expressing Supreme Court worries

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson joined a group of Republican AGs signing a letter on Thursday expressing concerns about potential expansion of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The letter, which was led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, was addressed to President Joe Biden, as well as Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders. It was signed by 20 Republican attorneys general.

“We understand that some members of Congress are upset by what they see as the politicization of the Supreme Court. Ironically, many of these same members, including two addressees of this letter, led partisan attacks during the confirmation hearings of Judge Robert Bork, Judge Clarence Thomas, and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, among many others. Each of these fights and changes has weakened the independence of the judiciary and put at risk all Americans’ liberty,” the letter reads.

The letter comes the same month that President Biden created the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States via executive order. The White House says the bipartisan commission’s purpose is to provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform.

Democrats have also proposed legislation in the House that would expand the Supreme Court, though House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she had “no plans to bring it to the floor.”

“The Justices of the Supreme Court have repeatedly shown their independence, despite their differences and despite the labels some put upon them,” Moody’s letter continued. “When elected officials do not like the outcome of a case, that is not a sign of the politicization of the court, but of the system working. After all, the whims of elected officials are the very thing against which the court is supposed to protect the people.”

Besides Nebraska and Florida, other states represented on the letter include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

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