The Long and Extremely Urgent To-Do List if Democrats Take the House

But there is more.
There is overwhelming public support for term limits for justices; Congress
should pass a bill calling for 18-year terms, effective upon enactment, with
justices then given options of senior status or continued service on a special
court of appeals, to fit the constitutional provision of service during good
behavior. If it is enacted, for the Roberts court to try to negate it would be
a blatant conflict of interest, worth challenging. Consideration of enlarging
the Supreme Court to 13, to fit the 13 circuits, with the term limits then
extended to 26 years, should be on the agenda. And if the Roberts court
continues to bypass the Constitution to promote its radical unitary executive
theory, protect Donald Trump, and negate congressional authority, it should at
least hold hearings on returning the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to the
original specified in the Constitution: to wit, as Section 2, Article 2 states, “In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and
consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall
have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the
Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such
regulations as the Congress shall make. Congress has the power to create a
new court of appeals to hold overall appellate authority.

One other idea,
admittedly a stretch but not without grounding in history, is moving the
Justice Department and attorney general out of the executive branch. The
initial consideration of the Judiciary Act of 1793 had the attorney general
chosen by the Supreme Court. If combined with court reform, it may be worth
considering.

To make some or
all of this happen, Democrats in the House and Senate need to do what they have
failed to do up to now: create a unified and disciplined message to let
Americans know what the problems are and what they are doing about them. Trump
has learned from his friend Steve Bannon that if you flood the zone with
outrages, they will wash over each other and few if any will stick. The media
are ill equipped to handle it, and most voters, occupied with their own lives
and challenges, are not paying close attention to every corrupt act or policy
outrage. If Democrats, given the timidity of the press corps and its
predilection to both-sides issues and let Trump define the narrative, do not
develop a discipline that includes changing the old ways of doing business and
communicating, their tenure in power will be short and brutal. The way to
counter the zone is to have one message pursued relentlessly for at least a
week at a time.