Putting A Stake Through the Heart of Zombie Laws

In the wake of the recent raft of horrifying SCOTUS decisions, Democrats are looking for proactive ways to contain the damage

At a demonstration at the Supreme Court in March, 2024, a protester dressed as Anthony Comstock advocates for using an 1873 zombie law to ban the abortion drug mifepristone.

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As controversy swirls around the 2024 Election and Democrats scramble to shore up their ticket in the wake of a disastrous June presidential debate, it is imperative to push past the media frenzy about President Biden’s intellectual fitness for office. Democratic strategists must forcefully articulate second-term policies, particularly those that can disable a right-wing movement that is well-funded and threatens to take the United States back to the 1950s. What is most frequently mentioned, in a Congress that seems frozen by small majorities, is a court-packing plan to disable the current conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court.

While a second term is usually an opportunity for radical solutions, court packing may not be one of them. It is viewed by experts as reducing the independence and legitimacy of the judiciary at least as much as the members of the conservative majority failures: forgetting to disclose lavish gifts, hobnobbing with major donors, hanging flags associated with right-wing militias, and active family connections to the MAGA movement.

But here’s something the Biden administration could put on the agenda for a second term: eliminating the “zombie laws” that right-wing activists use to bring cases that take away our rights.

Let me explain.