The Daily Beast Podcast - This Is How to Impeach a Supreme Court Justice

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2024, eliminating the decades-long protected right to an abortion. New Abnormal co-host Molly Jong-Fast could not wait until the next episode to address this far-reaching decision, so she recorded an “emergency” episode and interviewed Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Secretary Griswold explains to Molly and listeners what it would take to impeach a Supreme Court Justice, why she believes the conservative justices lied under oath and what states can do ASAP to protect the women there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So we're doing a special emergency pod right now because of the Roe opinion. And I have written about the Roe opinion about a million times and have thought about the Roe opinion since the draft was leaked in February, the Alito draft. But nothing really prepared me for how I would feel. And, you know, I'm a middle-aged woman who lives in a blue city and a blue state, who's probably never going to have an abortion. But this is not about me. It's about, you know, my brethren.

It's about the other women in this country and the right that they are losing today. And couldn't know how I would feel when that Roe opinion came down. And even looking at the words, and I read this one sentence, the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey are overruled. And the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives, who are, by the way, taking it to them already. And as soon as it leaked, Mike Pence immediately said, like, now we got a ban it in the state.

So we know where this is going. It's a strange and horrible thing the day after right to this opinion where they said basically that New York State can't regulate guns. They are now saying that only they can regulate women's bodies. It's just a strange and awful time in American life. And so I asked Jesse if we could do a special emergency pod. And there's been a lot of grandstanding and fundraising on the political side. And so I wanted a Democrat who was really proactive.

And so we are interviewing Secretary of State in the great state of Colorado, Jenna Griswold. I hope that you guys find this short interview with Jenna Griswold useful. Welcome back to the new abnormal Jenna Griswold. Thanks for having me on, Molly. Your Secretary of State of Colorado, I wanted to get you on because I know that you're a Democrat, but also you understand what a meaningful and horrible day this has been for all of us. Yeah. We saw a coming, but I mean, how do you see when you saw that, I mean. It's so strange because we all knew this was coming and it still feels like just being punched in.

the gut. It's devastating. It's outrageous. I am personally outraged for the fact that the Supreme Court is no longer seeing American women as full people. So I just, I cannot even believe what the Supreme Court just did. But more than that, what all these extremists in state legislatures and in governorships in the U.S. Senate have been laying the groundwork for for literally decades. So, yeah, I want to talk to you about that because it's such an interesting on Thursday, they were like, New York State doesn't really have the rights it thinks to to regulate guns. On Friday, they were like, but abortion. You guys, I mean, we knew this was coming. You are in a state that is a very interesting state, right? Because it's a purple state in the middle of the country, widely divergent. You've got rural, you've got urban, you've got everything in between. I mean, you're, you. And you're You've got people who have AR-15s. I mean, you're really in it the way a Michigan is in it. So explain to me how you deal with that.

Well, I think, Molly, to give you the shout-out you deserve, I think you described it really well this morning. We have an extremist Supreme Court that no longer believes in state's rights unless it's regulating women's reproductive parts. It's outrageous. The fact that women are going to die, the Supreme Court in extremists in states across this nation has blood on their hands. Women will die because they will not stop getting abortions. And by the way, 60% of American women seeking an abortion already have a child.

They want to be better mothers. So I just think it shows the complete partisanship of the court, the fact that they're willing to strip away state regulations. in a major way of reasonable gun control while at the same time stripping away the fundamental freedoms of women in literally one day to the next just shows how hyperpartisan the Supreme Court is. And I think it really calls for a hard look as to whether some of these Supreme Court justices need to be impeached. So talk to me about impeaching Supreme Court justices because this is a fabulous notion. But, I mean, how would that even work? Yeah. So basically, Congress can impeach and there has to be a basis to do so.

They have to have committed some type of illegal offense. But let's just think about it. Justice Thomas, who is now saying that marriage equality, that birth control, that all these rights suddenly are at risk, should be impeached for his involvement in election-related cases. He has breached the public's trust. his wife literally was involved in an attempted violent overthrow of the U.S. government. And when you look at Kavanaugh, Connie Barrett, Gorsuch, did they know at the time they were testifying that they would rule to overturn Roe and lie in their testimony? Is it deception? Does it amount to perjury? Did they intentionally misdirect Congress? Those are the questions that should be looked at. And I think, you know, even Senator May,

just put out that he trusted Gorsuch. He trusted Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent. So I think, you know, Congress should be looking at this. We have a Supreme Court that is so extreme that it no longer represents what it means to live in a society where we can pursue the pursuit of happiness. So I really do think Congress needs to take a good glance at what's going on. Like wouldn't term limits be an easy thing to get going? I mean, is there a mechanism for that, at the very least? Well, I think nothing is easy, right, when it comes to anything related to the federal government, because the federal government is broken. The fact that the U.S.

Senate did not protect the right to vote. The fact that we are getting these extreme laws and extreme decisions, which are misconstruits during the Second Amendment to such an extent that second graders are being killed going to school. So easy, I guess, is in the eye of the beholder. But what I can say is pregnancy should not be forced on people by the U.S. government. It's an individual's freedom to make the choice. And the vast majority of Americans believe in the right to choose. And now we have a government of extremists overruling us. So I think we need to do everything possible to think about how we are protecting our fundamental freedoms, how are we making sure that women are actually true citizens. And one of the things that states can do is pass legislation or amendments to their constitution

to protect the right to access to abortion. That's what Colorado did this last legislative session, and we really urge states across the country in Congress to do the same. So how did you do that and explain to us? Yeah, so the Colorado legislature passed a law that codifies the right to birth control, codifies the right to access to abortion in state law. So even though Roe has been, you know, effectively gutted, Colorado remains a safe place. And so states across the nation can do the same. And I'll tell you, being from a state like Colorado where we support women, we support

access to reproductive health care, that doesn't mean that we're going to sit idly by. We understand that we have to keep on fighting. For every Texan, for every woman from Tennessee, for every person in Louisiana whose medical decisions have been stripped away from them and criminalized, as a nation we have to keep on fighting. And the irony of all of this is the majority of Americans support the right to abortion access. So it's really a minority rule. And, you know, our power, we have several levers of power, but one of the big ones is at the ballot box. We're seeing a lot of Democrats do,

we're getting a lot of fundraising emails. I feel like people are mad and they want to know, you know, they don't want to hear that it's business as usual. I mean, look, I understand that they don't control the Senate by a large margin and they don't control Congress by a large margin, but they do control that and the president. presidency, and they certainly don't control the judicial branch, it's an inflection point, right, as a Democrat, to have so much control and yet to be just losing rights. Yeah, and I think that's

really hard for people to understand, you know, the fact that there's this excuse of a filibuster. Everyday people don't think about a filibuster. So I do think we really need to show results, but I'll tell you, even before this, there are so many people fired up. They're fired up around the state about, you know, the stripping away of voting rights are fired away about the all on assault against women. And I do think there are several potential things that that can happen. Number one, states can be passing amendments to their state constitution or putting into law the right to access to abortion. And we really urge states across the country to do so. We would also like Congress to act, to act to save women who, you know, this is dangerous for women across the nation.

We really, I support looking into impeachment of several of these justices. You cannot lie under oath. You cannot deceive. You cannot not remove yourself from a conflict of interest while your wife is, you know, helping organize a violent assault on the U.S. capital. So I think that's something that Congress can and should be doing. But I think it's equally important to recognize this is part of a broader assault on our fundamental rights, including the right to vote, including the right to privacy, including the right to love freely.

We are seeing these extremist views being imposed on the minority. Excuse me, these extremist views being opposed on the majority. And again, the reason that these same extremists are trying to strip away the right to vote because they know that this is our power. And remember, the majority of voters are women and the majority of women are met as hell as what's happening in this country right now. Yeah, it definitely seems like that.

I mean, I just, it's funny because it's like, we knew it was coming for so long from February, from that draft opinion. Yeah. But it is, there's something, something different about when it happens. Yeah, that's exactly right. I don't know, but it's like,

you know this bad thing is coming and you know it's coming, but it still hits you really hard. Yeah. You know, Molly, I grew up pretty poor. I grew up in rural Colorado, literally in a cabin with an outhouse outside, on and off of food stamps. We would go to food banks. I started working summer after seventh grade.

Like the classic, like, growing up poor. My mom worked two jobs. And I remember growing up how hard it was for women to have access to plan B. how hard, even with row in place, like the barriers of being poor and coming from a rural part of the country to have that ability to make those choices about your life and your future. And this is going to be devastating for the middle class, for poor women across the country, for women of color, it's going to be devastating. And I, again, I fundamentally believe the Supreme Court will have been. blood on its hands because of this decision, as well extremist governors and legislators across the nation. And by the way, including some Democrats like the governor of Louisiana. Yeah. Oh, let's talk about

the midterm elections. Are the midterm elections going to be safe? Tell us what you guys are doing. Yes, absolutely. The midterms will be safe. With that said, we are seeing the worst assault on democracy in recent times. You know, last year, 33 voter suppression bills were passed across the nation. We're seeing insider threats. We are seeing election deniers run for office. And I just think like all of this is all tied up together. The fact that we have candidates in swing states who are either at the insurrection or saying they wouldn't certify the 2020 election run to be secretaries of state is related to the larger assault on our freedoms. Democracy is going to be on the ballot in 2022. Many Americans literally will be able to choose between candidates who are focused on helping their

parties and further destabilizing the country versus those of us who will uphold the right to vote and follow the laws. And we know, again, our freedoms, our power to make sure that laws passed are actually reflective of what people actually want, like the right to abortion, the right to violent background checks for people trying to get guns. That depends on voters showing up. And I'm so confident American voters are fired up and ready to save our fundamental freedoms in 2022.

I hope so. Thank you so much. This was so helpful. And I appreciate you. And I really, I appreciate that you're, you know, that you guys are working hard on trying to keep our rights. Yes, ma'am. And I really appreciate everything you're doing. And, you know, the last thing I will say is, I know Americans, I know voters are tired of hearing they need to go to the polls again after

showing up in a big way in 2020, only to have our rights still being stripped away. But we have to keep on showing up again and again because we are fighting against an unfair broken system that is tilted against everyday people. So we have to show up. And I'm confident again that we are going to save democracy. We will protect our fundamental freedoms. This is the fight of our lifetime right now. And we are going to win it. Oh, I hope so. Thanks for coming on. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. I'm glad it worked out. Thanks. On that note, we'll wrap this episode of the new abnormal from The Daily Beast. In future episodes, we'll be talking to smart folks from The Daily Beast and beyond from media, culture, politics and science.

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