{"id":16619,"date":"2026-05-06T19:05:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=16619"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:05:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:05:02","slug":"time-to-reform-our-illegitimate-supreme-court-bradcast-5-6-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=16619","title":{"rendered":"Time to Reform our Illegitimate Supreme Court: ‘BradCast’ 5\/6\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As discussed on today’s BradCast<\/i><\/a>, little if anything will ultimately get corrected in our broken democracy unless and until we have reform of our corrupted U.S. Supreme Court. Time to start talking about it, so we can press candidates for Congress this year on whether they will support it. [Audio to full show follows this summary.<\/i>]\n

Before we get to our guest to discuss exactly that today, election results are in from statewide Primary Elections in two states and a critical Special Election in a third on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In Ohio<\/b>, few surprises. But two key elections for 2026 are now teed up<\/a>. Former Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown<\/b> will attempt to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Husted<\/b>, who was temporarily appointed to the seat vacated when J.D. Vance<\/b> ascended to the Vice Presidency. This contest is likely to be one of the most expensive races of the year, as Dems hope to flip a “red” Senate seat to “blue” in a state that has been trending to the right for years. <\/p>\n

One of the nation’s most annoying Republicans, Vivek Ramaswamy<\/b>, one Donald Trump<\/b>‘s early DOGE Bros rejects, is officially set to take on Democratic Dr. Amy Acton<\/b> for Governor in Ohio. Acton won the hearts of many as the Buckeye State’s top medical official and a regular presence during the COVID Pandemic. Also, Ohio Republicans in the 9th U.S. House District rejected Trump’s former Deputy Director of ICE in the GOP primary (she came in third), in favor of former State Rep. Derek Martin<\/b> who will, once again, take on Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur<\/b> for her Toledo area seat, after it was made slightly more Republican by redistricting last year. Kaptur defeated Merrin by less than one point in 2024. <\/p>\n

In Indiana<\/b>, the biggest news was that at least five<\/a> Republican state Senators were turfed out by Trump-endorsed primary challengers as part of his revenge campaign against the GOP-controlled state Senate that rejected his demand to gerrymander the already very “red” U.S. House map in the Hoosier state. One of his candidates lost to an incumbent, and another race is a virtual tie, with the Republican incumbent leading the Trump-funded challenger by a mere three votes! Good luck to all in the recount. Most of the state is forced to vote on 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting systems. <\/p>\n

And finally, in Michigan<\/b> on Tuesday, a special election for the state Senate in a very narrowly divided District largely echoed all of the special elections we’ve seen across the nation over the past 15 months since Trump’s return to office. In a District won by Kamala Harris<\/b> in 2024 by less than a point, Democratic firefighter Chedrick Greene<\/b> snuffed out his Republican opponent<\/a> by nearly 20 points(!) on Tuesday, ensuring that Democrats will retain their majority control of the state Senate.<\/p>\n

NEXT UP…<\/i> Unfortunately, what FDR<\/b> said in one of his Fireside Radio Chats<\/a>, on March 9, 1937, rings all too true today…<\/p>\n

“During the past half century the balance of power between the three great branches of the Federal Government, has been tipped out of balance by the Courts in direct contradiction of the high purposes of the framers of the Constitution. It is my purpose to restore that balance. You who know me will accept my solemn assurance that in a world in which democracy is under attack, I seek to make American democracy succeed. You and I will do our part.”<\/div>\n

Last week, the activist rightwing U.S. Supreme Court<\/b> majority unleashed chaos and confusion across the nation with their wildly corrupt ruling<\/a> in Louisiana v. Callais<\/i>. Many Republican-controlled states, particularly in the old Confederate South, are now scrambling to redraw majority-minority U.S. House districts out of existence. After blocking other election law changes in recent years for being made too close to elections — even those that would prevent thousands from being disenfranchised — the High Court has hypocritically<\/a> given the okay to literally rig House District maps in the middle of Primary season, even with thousands of votes already cast in several states where Republicans are now suspending the election to gerrymander their maps again for 2026. Tennessee<\/b> was the latest<\/a> to begin that process today, following on the heels of Louisiana<\/b> and Alabama<\/b> since just last week.<\/p>\n

The corrupt ruling in Callais<\/i>, unfortunately, is hardly the only one made by the disgraceful Roberts Court in recent years, in seemingly direct contravention of the U.S. Constitution. And now time for a long overdue conversation about how Congress, as per the Constitution, must legislate reforms to this radical, runaway, renegade, Republican Court.<\/p>\n

We’re joined today to discuss exactly that by ALICIA BANNON<\/b>, Director of the Judiciary Program at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice<\/a>, where she is also Director of its Kohlberg Center on the Supreme Court. Two of her colleagues at Brennan, Miriam Rosenbaum and Emily Whitehead, recently penned an article for Time<\/i> headlined “The Supreme Court is Dangerously Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.”<\/a><\/p>\n

“Public confidence in the Supreme Court right now has plummeted. And it’s plummeted, frankly, for good reason,” Bannon tells me today. “We have a Court that has aggrandized its own powers in ways that have been deeply destructive to our democratic institutions. It’s not playing the role it’s supposed to play in our system of checks and balances, which gives Congress the power to pass laws and not have them overturned by the Supreme Court based on specious readings of the Constitution.”<\/p>\n

She charges the Court “has taken on a role that’s deeply destructive to our democratic institutions,” but finds it “heartening that we are starting to hear a more serious conversation about Supreme Court reform.”<\/p>\n

Like me, she sees the Callais<\/i> ruling as wholly inconsistent of the plain text and history of the Voting Rights Act,” and describes it as “an inappropriate assertion of power by the Supreme Court, because the Constitution is crystal clear that Congress was empowered to enforce the right to vote under our Constitution.”<\/p>\n

But that’s hardly the only reason the Court is now “prime for reform” by Congress, as Bannon details today, explaining how they have done that many times over the years, as part of their Constitutionally defined duties.<\/p>\n

Among the reforms discussed today…<\/p>\n