The latest fight over the Supreme Court is about more than one ruling. It’s about something much bigger: a political class that seems to think the court is only legitimate when it gives them the answer they want. That’s the real story behind the angry rhetoric, the fake outrage, and the sudden urge to delegitimize the institution itself. So when the left starts tossing around the word “illegitimate,” what’s really going on?
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries lit the match after the court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais ruled that racial gerrymandering was unconstitutional.
Democrats, who have relied on racial gerrymandering to pad their numbers in Congress for decades now, obviously had to trash not just the outcome, but the court itself. At a Wednesday press conference, Jeffries blasted “this illegitimate Supreme Court majority” and claimed the ruling was designed to undermine the ability of communities of color to elect their candidate of choice. He then escalated further, saying, “This isn’t even really the Roberts Court. It’s the Trump Court.”
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That kind of language matters. You can argue the case, you can attack the reasoning, you can even say the decision is wrong. But calling the Court illegitimate is a different move entirely. It’s not a legal argument. It’s an institutional smear, and it sounds a lot like preparation for the next phase of the left’s campaign.
And that’s where James Carville comes in. He has predicted that Democrats will try to expand the Court from nine justices to 13 if they regain full power, and he was blunt about it. “They’re going to recommend that the number of Supreme Court justices go from nine to 13. That’s going to happen, people,” he said.
And how do you make such a plan happen?
Jonathan Turley nailed the logic behind the playbook. As he put it, “To do that, you must first delegitimize the court. You must attack both the individual justices and the institution itself.” He added that this kind of rhetoric is really about generating the rage needed to tear apart a core institution of the republic.
Jeffries' attack isn’t just a complaint about one ruling. It’s an effort to frame the court as corrupt, partisan, and beyond trust, which is exactly the kind of pretext activists need if they want to justify packing it with leftists later.
Meanwhile, Justice Neil Gorsuch offered a very different picture of the Court’s role. In a Sunday interview on Fox News Sunday, while discussing his new book, Heroes of 1776, he said the system is “working”. He pointed out that the justices resolve about 40% of cases unanimously, even though they come from different presidents and judicial philosophies.
So no, the court is not illegitimate. I get that the left doesn’t like the ruling because it means the corrupt system they’ve relied upon is crumbling, but that doesn’t make the court illegitimate. And if the left keeps talking this way, it won’t be hard to see where the next push is headed.
