Civic Register
| 10.15.21
Biden’s Commission Studying Supreme Court Reform Weighs Benefits & Risks of Adding Justices
Do you support or oppose adding four justices to the Supreme Court to give liberals the majority?
What’s the story?
- A commission created by President Joe Biden to study potential changes to the Supreme Court released discussion materials on Thursday and held a public hearing Friday. It’s expected to prepare a report for the president by mid-November. Biden formed the commission by executive order earlier this year, fulfilling a campaign pledge made during his presidential campaign amid calls by Democrats to add four new justices to the bench and tip the ideological balance of the nation’s highest court.
- The discussion materials covered the commission’s role in the reform debate; membership and size of the Supreme Court; term limits; the Court’s role in the constitutional system; and the Court’s process for selecting and reviewing cases.
- Commissioners noted that Congress has changed the size of the Court several times from 1789 to 1869 and clearly has the authority to do so, but that the more difficult question is whether it should be expanded. While expansion could improve public perception of the Court’s legitimacy or boost its efficiency, the commissioners wrote that “the risks of Court expansion are considerable, including that it could undermine the very goal of some of its proponents of restoring the Court’s legitimacy.”
- It’s unclear how much the commission’s work will influence Biden’s position on expanding the Supreme Court, which has evolved over the course of his political career. When he was the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden said court-packing was a “bonehead idea” and “terrible, terrible mistake” that would undermine the Court’s integrity.
- After launching his presidential campaign in 2019, Biden said Democrats would “rue the day” they pursue court-packing. Over the course of his campaign, Biden began to dodge questions on the issue and tried to avoid answering the question prior to the election. Less than two weeks before the election, Biden relented and committed to forming a commission on the issue to placate Democrats who were calling for the Court to be expanded and packed with liberal justices who could overwhelm the Court’s current 6-3 conservative majority.
- Two of the most prominent Supreme Court justices in recent memory who are considered to be liberals in their jurisprudence have expressed opposition to expanding the Court beyond nine justices for the purpose of packing it with justices to suit the political desire of the party in power.
- Prior to her death, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told NPR that “nine seems to be a good number” of justices and “it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.” Ginsburg added:
“If anything would make the Court look partisan, it would be that ― one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.’”
- Earlier this year, Justice Stephen Breyer spoke for two hours at Harvard Law School to warn against court-packing efforts and said he hoped to “make those whose instincts may favor important structural change or other similar institutional change, such as forms of ‘court-packing,’ think long and hard before they embody those changes in law.” Breyer said:
“If the public sees judges as politicians in robes, its confidence in the courts, and in the rule of law itself, can only diminish, diminishing the court’s power, including its power to act as a check on other branches… I hope and expect that the Court will retain its authority. But that authority, like the rule of law, depends on trust, a trust that the Court is guided by legal principle, not politics. Structural alteration motivated by the perception of political influence can only feed that perception, further eroding that trust.”
- The size of the Court has ranged between five and 10 justices, and the number of justices changed six times before it settled at nine justices in 1869. During the Civil War, the Republican Congress expanded the Court to 10 to let Abraham Lincoln make more appointments, but after the war reduced it to eight to prevent Andrew Johnson from making appointments. The number of justices was then restored to nine justices in 1869 after Ulysses Grant took office. Since then, the most serious challenge to the nine-justice Supreme Court came from FDR’s failed court-packing plan in the late 1930s.
- In the current Congress, House Democrats have introduced legislation to add four more justices to the Supreme Court as part of an effort to alter the balance of the nation’s highest court in favor of liberals. However, legislation to change the size of the Supreme Court would be subject to the Senate’s 60 vote threshold (aka the legislative filibuster), which Democrats wouldn’t be able to secure. Additionally, Democrats lack the 50 votes they would need to use the “nuclear option” to abolish the filibuster.
— Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: VoxLive via Flickr / Creative Commons)
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I oppose adding anymore Supreme Court Justices - and agree with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told NPR that “nine seems to be a good number” of justices and “it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.” Ginsburg added: “If anything would make the Court look partisan, it would be that ― one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.’”
Quit with stacking the court effort.
Hahahahaha, You are so funny! No I don't think that more money should be wasted on more opinions for the Supreme Court. In fact the first time this current court votes against any abortion issues, you will have the unseating of members by the American people! So get ready for that one.....
This is a true example of abuse of power by one body of the government. The Judicial branch was set up as a balance of power to the Executive and Congressional branches to protect the rights of the citizens amd that seems to be forgotten in the current administration.
I don't have time to be a Supreme Court Justice and since every succeeding POTUS will want to add at least double what his/her predecessor did eventually we will all have to move to DC to sit on the bench. On the bright side the DC football team will be best financed team since its home town will have a couple of hundred million in its area.
I oppose adding four liberal justices, four conservative I support.
Just like voting district gerrymandering, this is a short term ploy to tip the scales of the political leanings in what is supposed to be a politically neutral group. I would be against this with a conservative administration also. Sure, it may help out one party or the other in the short term. Where do you draw your line for tampering with SCOTUS for the sake of short term goals? My line is drawn with court packing in a divided country. Sure, Trump did a late term appointment that got a lot of people butt hurt, but packing SCOTUS as a revenge tactic by the Democratic party is shameful. It's hard to consider yourself as taking the high road when you use the same tactics as the person you despise for using those tactics, just to spite them. This is what Trump would do. Congratulations President Biden. You've started acting just like the guy you hate. Ruling by executive order-check. Lying to/misinforming people-check. Abusing your position to advance and benefit your kids and friends-check. Nicely done. I'm sure Trump is proud of you for following his lead of being a despicable leader and person.
We have 13 Circuit Courts. We should have 13 Supreme Court Justices.
Mitch McConnell broke institutional norms by refusing to even allow a vote on an Oboma nominee for the Supreme Court. Then rushed through A.C.Barrett nomination at the end of the Trump administration. This was another attack on Democracy. It is very difficult to write laws that deal with every situation. Our county has for years depended upon norms of behavior that are being undermined and broken every day. Something must be done. I am hoping the committee will arrive at a solution.
This has been the answer when Democrats can't do things by legislative means they want the Courts to fix it. When the Court is saying their way is Unconstitutional then they want to increase the number of Justices appointed by a Democrat president to rule in their way! As Obama so famously put it, "elections have Conqueses'" and the American people were told that Donald Trump would put forth Constitutional justices and voted for him to put those on the Courts. No one could have predicted that would give Trump 3 Supreme Court justices, the Democrats are thus trying to "fix" their worst nightmare come true. American people are not unaware of the situation and find it unfair.
A total attempt at a takeover of our justice system.
Proverbs 14:12 The Passion Translation (TPT) You can rationalize it all you want and justify the path of error you have chosen, but you’ll find out in the end that you took the road to destruction. Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Isaiah 28:15-19 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: …
If Biden adds four now, who's to say that the next Republican won't add eight? This is stupid and a waste of time. The ONLY people supporting this only want to make America into a banana republic.
Everything is upside down presently. I’d concentrate on term limits and getting back taxes paid by our politicians before I would ever think about supporting this fools errand
Hands off the Supreme Court
The only reason Democrats want to pack the court is to outnumber conservative judges. We need better judges, not more.
The Supreme Court should be expanded to represent the larger population now in the US.
I feel that court-packing is wrong and not in the best interest of the country.
There isn’t anything in the Constitution that says how large the Supreme Court should be, but in 1869 Congress passed a law limiting the court size to nine. Also, it would set a ridiculous precedent if each administration is allowed to add justices sympathetic to it’s political views. Pretty soon we’d have hundreds of justices on the Court.
Blah, blah, blah. On one hand lefties call for not politicizing the court but on the other support packing it to gain a liberal political majority. More Dimocrat double standard. Blatantly obvious illicit activity by "the party" is out of control and must be reigned in. Term limits. Not for justices but for our elected representation. That should be the focus and not the self-serving personal agenda of too many posters to this site with their eccentric opinions.