Gingrich Asked: Should Impeachment Be Used To Combat 'Flagrant Judicial Overreach' From Judges?

2 days ago

At Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) questioned former Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Texas has been patiently waiting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the

00:06witnesses who are here. We discussed it a little bit earlier, but I'd like to put a

00:10little bit of a finer point on it. In the 117th Congress, then Chairman Jerry

00:17Nadler, as well as Hank Johnson, introduced the Judiciary Act of 2021,

00:21which would have increased the size of the Supreme Court from nine justices to

00:2713. That bill had 59 Democrat co-sponsors, and they were so convicted that the

00:34size of the Supreme Court should be 13 justices that they then reintroduced

00:39the same bill in the following Congress and received 65 co-sponsors. So I am

00:46looking forward to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle reintroducing

00:51that bill this Congress as well. We hear a lot about bipartisanship, and I'm

00:56sure you can get a little bit of bipartisan support for that when you do.

01:00But with that said, Mr. Chairman, civilization is a very fragile

01:08thing, and in the Western world, particularly in the United States, it's

01:15been unraveling as the left and their allies on the courts have intentionally

01:21and deliberately facilitated the mass migration of criminal illegal aliens

01:27into our communities. These are people who are murdering and raping and

01:31pillaging American citizens on American soil, a country that was once the zenith

01:37of civilization. America increasingly resembles the third world and is

01:43reverting to barbarism, as Ms. Romero's testimony so poignantly underscores. And

01:49instead of fighting for the preservation of our communities and the integrity of

01:54our nation's sovereignty, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to

01:58keep alien terrorists within our borders. And at so many times, district court

02:05judges are leading the charge, and I think that Judge Boasberg is an

02:11excellent example of that. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much for being here. It's

02:17an honor to be able to to speak with you and ask you questions. I look up to

02:21you a lot. Could you explain how much constitutional and legal authority does

02:26Congress have to oversee lower courts? Well, it's virtually, if it acts with the

02:34executive branch. I mean, the part of the theory of Montesquieu's spirit of the

02:39law, which is the base of the Constitution, is you have these three

02:43bodies. Any two outvotes the other one. So in a very real sense, the Congress and

02:50the judiciary could take on the executive, or the judiciary and the

02:55executive could take on the Congress. There's a constant revolving. President

02:59Jackson made the argument that, in fact, each of us, every elected official, has an

03:04equal obligation to enforce the Constitution. And he refused to accept

03:09the idea that the court could instruct him. And he very blatantly just said,

03:13I'm glad you think that. I don't. And that, and then Taney, who was his attorney

03:18general, who defended that, ends up as a Supreme Court justice, in many ways

03:23leading to the Civil War by his decision in Dred Scott. So I think you have every

03:29right, if you read the Constitution itself, you create lower courts. I mean,

03:34the Supreme Court is superior in the sense there's the one thing in the

03:37Constitution you could not eliminate except by constitutional amendment. But

03:44everything below that is a creature of the legislative-executive agreement. I'm

03:49assuming here you're not going to try to override the president, but you mean

03:52theoretically the Congress could decide, and if it had the votes in the House and

03:56Senate, you can override a president. Right. So the courts are actually much

04:01more subject to the policing of the elected officials of the United States

04:06than they think they are, and that's because for about three generations now,

04:10law schools have taught this mythology of legal supremacy based on the judicial

04:16branch alone. It's nonsense. It's one of three co-equal branches, and it is the

04:22weakest of the three, not the strongest. In terms of enforcing that oversight,

04:27putting aside whether impeachment is the most expeditious or prudent means right

04:33now to oversee the courts, do you believe that it should be at least

04:36considered as an option to remedy blatant or flagrant judicial overreach

04:41from district court judges? Well, I think that Chairman Issa has exactly the right

04:47first step. Look, we're in the middle of such enormous change that I have, this

04:54will strike some of you who know my career, as sort of unusual. I'm actually now in a

04:58period of thinking incrementalism may be pretty good because we've actually set an

05:03enormous shift strategically, and now we need to spend a little bit of time

05:07cautiously, you know, so I don't want to overreach, you know, which you coming

05:11theoretically, you could abolish the district judges. I mean, you have that

05:14power if the president agrees, but that would be an enormous jump, and I

05:20think the country needs to educate itself, and frankly, the judges are going

05:23to get educated if they see the legislative branch seriously moving. I

05:27mean, it's one thing that the president say something, you know, from the bully

05:31pulpit, it's another thing to suddenly see laws moving and realize, you know, if

05:34we don't pull back a little bit, this could become uncontrollable. I think, I'm

05:39hoping, that's why today I've repeatedly talked about the opportunity the Chief

05:43Justice has, because I really hope he'll realize he has the best, easiest,

05:48least disruptive solution. And for the record, I agree that I think that

05:53Mr. Issa's bill is an excellent piece of legislation that we should all be able to

05:57get behind. As a freshman, you're gonna go far.

Gingrich Asked: Should Impeachment Be Used To Combat 'Flagrant Judicial Overreach' From Judges?

Category

Transcript

Recommended