Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader from Kentucky, criticized recent Democratic efforts aimed at undermining the Supreme Court.
Democratic scrutiny towards Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito has intensified, particularly following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. McConnell, in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, not only denounced these attempts to weaken the court but also linked them to a broader pattern of Democrats seeking to subvert democracy—a charge typically leveled against Republicans.
“The Constitution assigns each branch of the federal government distinct powers, accountable to the electorate through elections,” McConnell wrote. “In various branches, liberals are attempting to strip away this power from democratic oversight and transfer it to unelected bureaucrats. This practice may stem from a genuine trust in ‘experts’ or a belief that important policies should be shielded from electoral risk. Yet fundamentally, it rejects democratic accountability in favor of administrative control.”
McConnell argued in his essay that Democrats misunderstand the federal government’s structure, particularly in their calls for Chief Justice John Roberts to compel Justice Alito’s recusal from certain cases.
“As the court has long maintained, recusal is a judicial decision, not—as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) suggested in response to my criticisms—an administrative matter,” McConnell explained. “This misconception permeates efforts to impose ethics ‘reforms’ on the Supreme Court. Liberals contend that the court’s binding ethics regulations lack an ‘enforcement mechanism’ to ensure recusal when they deem it necessary. However, this complaint disregards the Constitution entirely.”
The Kentucky Republican asserted that Democrats were undermining constitutional principles by seeking to establish bureaucratic oversight over the court, arguing that they advocate for “bureaucrats to assume judicial authority.”
Republicans have accused Democrats of targeting Thomas and Alito as part of a campaign to discredit the court and regain control of the judiciary.
Amid pressure on Thomas and Alito to recuse themselves from a case involving former President Donald Trump’s immunity from prosecution during his presidency, Alito has explicitly stated he will not recuse himself, with Thomas showing no inclination to do so either.
