Undermining judicial review is a standard tactic of incipient illiberal authoritarians, who seek to concentrate power in the executive. American progressives readily see this when it comes to countries like Russia, Turkey, Hungary, and—most recently—Israel. The point applies here at home, too. If you think Trump and other Republicans pose a grave danger to liberal democracy, you should be wary of dismantling one of the major institutions standing in their way. Imagine, for example, if Trump had been able to successfully resist judicial rulings against his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Tushnet and Belkin’s references to “MAGA justices” are presumably meant to associate the Supreme Court with Donald Trump’s illiberal and anti-democratic tendencies. The MAGA turn has indeed shifted the GOP on major issues, such as immigration, trade, government spending, and others. These changes are among the reasons why I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, despite many reservations about the Democratic Party. And Trump has attacked basic liberal democratic norms far more than any other modern president.

But there is little, if any, distinctive “MAGA” or Trumpist element to the recent Supreme Court rulings that most incense progressives. Abortion, affirmative action, gun rights, the powers of administrative agencies, and conflicts between free speech and antidiscrimination law have been points of contention between left and right for many years.

[Read the whole thing. As Jonathan Turley also noted, the Tushnet-Belkin letter is a paean to authoritarianism. Somin, who discloses in the piece that he voted for Biden, has a lot more to say on this, too. — Ed]