Ocasio-Cortez warns of ‘dangerous authoritarian expansion of power’ in Supreme Court

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday warned of an “authoritarian expansion of power” by the Supreme Court after it released several controversial opinions in it’s last week of the term.

“The courts, if they were to proceed without any check on their power, without any balance on their power, then we will start to see an undemocratic and, frankly, dangerous authoritarian expansion of power in the Supreme Court,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“Which is what we are seeing now, from the overturning of abortion rights to the ruling that discrimination and, frankly, stripping the full personhood and dignity of LGBTQ people in the United States. … These are the types of rulings that signal a dangerous creep towards authoritarianism and centralization of power in the court,” the New York Democrat said. 

The Supreme Court last week released opinions on several landmark decisions that included blows to affirmative action programs in college admissions, President Biden’s student debt relief program, and LGBTQ rights — rulings Republicans have largely lauded and Democrats have decried.

Ocasio-Cortez, a frequent critic of the conservative court, on Sunday argued that justices “are expanding their role into acting as though they are Congress itself,” noting recent controversies surrounding ethics standards and arguing justices’ power should be limited.

“And that, I believe, is an expansion of power that we really must be focusing on: the danger of this court and the abuse of power in this court, particularly … as it is related to the entanglements around conflicts of interest as well,” Ocasio-Cortez said.