Democrats have announced a House bill to pack the Supreme court by raising the number of justices from the current number of 9 to 13. The objective appears to be to eliminate the current 6-3 advantage that conservatives currently hold by adding four to the liberal side, thus giving liberals a 7-6 advantage. The bill does not have bipartisan support. There are even some liberals, including current Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who oppose the move.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg also opposed packing the court and she said as much on television not long before she passed away last year. Ginsburg said the current number of nine justices is enough. She also said that packing the court would simply incentivize each political party to do the same thing once they get in office. This is true because the Constitution does not limit the number of justices, nor does it limit how many times the number of justices can be changed.
The Supreme Court has had as few as five justices and as many as ten. The ten-justice court only lasted from 1863 to 1869. The court has been set at nine justices ever since there were no longer ten. If the present number of justices is increased, then the domino effect would most certainly happen. There could be a literal “packed” court with dozens of justices there, all appointed for specific political purposes by prior administrations.
A videotape surfaced of Joe Biden all the way back in 1983 opposing court packing for the same reasons that Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently opposed it. Biden referred to court-packing as a “bonehead” idea. But now, all of a sudden, Joe Biden essentially endorses the practice. It’s almost as if Biden is not truly running the ship and others “behind the scenes” are doing it for him. Such a sad state of affairs.
SOURCES:
Report: Democrats to Unveil Court-packing Bill; Expands Supreme Court to 13
Justice Stephen Breyer on packing Supreme Court: ‘think long and hard’ about the risks – The Washington Post
