Much like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, it's still unclear where Georgia Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff stand on court packing. Just so it's clear, court packing refers to FDR's unsuccessful attempt to add additional justices to the Supreme Court for political reasons (Dictionary.com conveniently changed the definition to fit the Democrats' narrative that Senate Republicans are somehow doing something wrong by confirming President Trump's nominees to the federal judiciary).
While Jon Ossoff, who is running against incumbent David Perdue, has said in the past that he opposes court packing, his actions say otherwise. Ossoff refused to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning the practice. Additionally, one Ossoff staffer implied earlier this month that Democrats were hiding their true stance on the issue:
BREAKING: GA Senate Candidate @ossoff Deputy Political Director Reveals Democrats Are Hiding Plans To Pack The Supreme Court With Liberal Justices
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) December 10, 2020
“If Biden gets elected, maybe we’ll add three justices to the Supreme(Court)”
“I can’t say that here today(Pack the court), but…" pic.twitter.com/PQ2pGnDpIG
Raphael Warnock, who is running against incumbent Kelly Loeffler, has yet to take a firm position on court packing because he claims it would be "presumptuous" to weigh in on the issue. On the other hand, Republican Senator Loeffler directly addressed her stance on the issue in a recent debate and called out Warnock:
“Justice Ginsburg herself said nine justices is the right number,” Loeffler said. “He would pack the court with radical justices that would legislate from the bench to fundamentally override the Constitution and our laws in this country and Georgians need to know that is wrong for Georgia and our country.”
Warnock declined to challenge Senator Loeffler's statement.
While Democrats continue to label conservatives' concerns about court packing as believing a crazy conspiracy, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam proved this week that their concerns are well-founded. Northam is proposing that $5.1 million be spent to expand the Virginia Court of Appeals from 11 judges to 15 to pack the court with liberal judges. Republican state Senator Steve Newman finds the proposal alarming:
Knowing that they all would be very liberal appointees, that would be fundamentally unfair, it would be unjust and it would be without precedent in Virginia...
I'm sure that the far-left would like to have a Court of Appeals that would overturn many, many more convictions, but the fact is we need to have balance when it comes to 18.2 of the code which is the criminal justice section[.]
The bottom line is that officials like Governor Northam show how far Democrats are willing to go in order to control the courts. A vote for Senators Perdue and Loeffler in Georgia is a vote against court packing — a practice rejected by the majority of Americans.