Earlier today, Democrat members of Congress announced the introduction of legislation that would expand the number of members on the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 to 13 justices. Liberals claimed that Republicans were alarmist when they suggested this would happen with Democrat control of Congress and the White House, but here we are. Just last week, President Joe Biden announced the formation of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States which many see as a vehicle for making the idea of packing the Supreme Court mainstream.
Democrats aren’t even trying to hide their objectives with their new Court packing legislation. Their objective is to gain as much power as possible as quickly as possible.
— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) April 15, 2021
The Left and the liberal dark money groups that support them won't stop agitating to pack the Court.
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) April 15, 2021
They won't be satisfied with a report from a commission.
They want to pack the Court with politicians in robes who will advance their radical agenda. https://t.co/vnJ6SxqJhR
As Republican Leader Mitch McConnell points out, there is opposition to court-packing across the ideological spectrum and by everyday Americans:
“Across the ideological spectrum, top jurists have been outspoken on what a terrible idea court-packing would be.
“The late liberal icon, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, explicitly warned against court-packing, saying, quote, ‘if anything would make the Court appear partisan, it would be that.’ ‘Nine seems to be a good number.’
“Justice Stephen Breyer reaffirmed his own opposition just last week.
“The public, by the way, agrees. They see through this discredited concept. One survey late last year showed that a clear majority of Americans oppose packing the Supreme Court.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called court packing a “bad idea” and said “I am not at all in favor.”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 15, 2021
Justice Stephen Breyer argued against court-packing when addressing Harvard Law School.
https://t.co/5yQ75ywVa6
In the past, threats of court-packing have been used to intimidate members of the Court. As Philip Hamburger explains in The Wall Street Journal, this is exactly what Democrats are attempting to do with this new legislation:
The intimidation game has begun. President Biden announced last Friday the formation of a commission on reforming the Supreme Court, and Democrats in the House and Senate responded on Wednesday by announcing that a bill to add four justices to the high court is forthcoming. These are dangerous developments. Even if court packing ultimately fails, the effort to intimidate the Supreme Court will have dire consequences.
Progressives have long used threats to pressure the Supreme Court to back down from the Constitution. . .
Progressives never had to carry out their threats to get what they wanted. All they had to do was encourage judges to consider the advantages of judicial “restraint” and “deference” to the political branches. Unnerved by the bullying, some Supreme Court justices lost their courage. By holding back from overturning popular legislation, they thought they could “save the Court. . .”
The threat of court packing is vandalism on a scale far beyond the destruction of statues. It undermines judicial duty and independence. It destroys the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and its decisions.
Leader McConnell agrees.
.@LeaderMcConnell on the Left's pattern of unprecedented intimidation against the Court, culminating in today's court packing legislation. pic.twitter.com/2MPzvxbgtb
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) April 15, 2021
While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says there are no plans currently to bring the court-packing legislation to the floor, she did not rule it out once President Biden's commission makes recommendations. However, no one should trust Democrats to keep to any plan. After all, the Senate sponsor of the bill, Ed Markey, one supported legislation to keep the number of Supreme Court justices at 9.
Hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/46Z2Uh4Sho
— Ken Buck (@BuckForColorado) April 15, 2021
Democrats will do whatever they can to achieve power, including destroying one of the country's most important nonpartisan institutions.