In the most striking moment of last night’s Vice Presidential Debate, Senator Kamala Harris refused to answer on court packing. But first, let us briefly address Senator Harris' citing of President Lincoln not filling a Supreme Court vacancy 27 days before an election.

Harris says Lincoln didn't nominate a supreme justice before the 1864 election. That's because when Taney died on 10/13 the senate was out of session. When they returned on 12/6 he nominated Salmon Chase that day and the senate confirmed him that day too.

— Chris Buskirk (@thechrisbuskirk) October 8, 2020

The most obvious difference here is the Senate is in session. Of course in 1864, the Senate was out of session and a war was going on. Also, it's unlikely that Harris thinks the Senate should confirm President Trump’s nominee in one day during the lame duck session.

Back to court packing. As late as January of this year, Biden was opposed to court packing:

In July 2019, Biden said that he was "not prepared to go on and try to pack the court." In October, he said that he "would not get into court-packing," and in his January interview with The New York Times, he claimed that he would have no proposed judicial reforms.

What changed? Biden is the nominee and as he put it “I am the Democratic Party now.” And it is a party that is literally to the left of Bernie Sanders as Senator Sanders opposes court packing.

The left is desperate to stop a court that respects the rule of law and does not legislate.

The confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee for Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court start Monday. For a preview of those hearings, tune in to our webinar tomorrow at 3:00 Eastern. Also, we encourage lawyers to sign our letter in support of Judge Barrett.