A key aide to Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, is drawing significant attention for his past support of the “defund police” movement and efforts to expand the Supreme Court. Brian Fallon, a former national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, is now a crucial figure in Harris’s team, serving as her communications director. His controversial stances are likely to become focal points for Republican attacks as the election approaches.
Fallon joined Harris’s team in January after nearly six years as the executive director of Demand Justice, a progressive organization dedicated to radical changes in the federal judiciary. His advocacy for defunding the police following George Floyd’s death and his support for packing the Supreme Court with more justices are expected to be key issues in the upcoming presidential race. Republicans are poised to frame Harris as anti-law-and-order, leveraging Fallon’s controversial positions to question her stance on public safety and judicial integrity.
In June 2020, Harris herself expressed support for the “defund the police” movement, a position that Democrats have increasingly distanced themselves from as crime rates have risen in many cities. This connection to Fallon’s advocacy is likely to further complicate Harris’s campaign narrative.
Founded by Fallon in 2018, Demand Justice has been a significant player in progressive judicial advocacy. The organization, initially a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund under the Arabella Advisors consultancy network, gained independence in 2021. It has been a major force behind ad campaigns targeting Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh during their confirmation processes and has spent considerable resources supporting President Joe Biden’s nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Demand Justice has also been at the forefront of efforts to add more seats to the Supreme Court, a move Republicans argue would politicize the judiciary and create an unfair power imbalance. Fallon’s outspoken support for such measures, including his controversial praise for Supreme Court leaks, further highlights the deep ideological divides over the judiciary’s role and structure.
Fallon’s involvement in Harris’s campaign and his connection to progressive causes present potential challenges for her presidential bid. As Republicans aim to portray Harris as out of touch with mainstream voters on issues of law enforcement and judicial impartiality, her campaign will need to navigate these criticisms carefully.
?Kamala Harris's communications director called for more leaks at the Supreme Court in the wake of the Dobbs draft opinion being leaked.
That leak helped lead to an assassination plot against Justice Kavanaugh a month later. pic.twitter.com/lqqpQaKmPq
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) July 26, 2024
Carrie Severino, president of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, highlighted Fallon’s controversial views by sharing a 2022 tweet in which he praised Supreme Court leaks. “SCOTUS leaks are good,” Fallon tweeted following the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. “Elite lawyers on both the left and right treating the Court as precious all these years have just been giving cover to an institution that is wholly accountable. Rip the veil off.”
