Court-packing promises a bad precedent

The number of Supreme Court Justices has changed many times. It was once 6 justices, then 7, then 9 to 10 then back down to 7 until eventually in 1869 the court was set back to 9, where it has stayed ever since. That is until now, it seems President Biden and Democrat legislators may be changing the number yet again. But this time it is being done wrongly for their own gain.

After Justice Amy Coney Barret was appointed, the imbalance of Republican chosen Justices to Democrat chosen justices has made the idea of expanding the court a hot topic. Even so, during the election Biden never clarified his position on packing the supreme court. Though, now he has now commissioned 180-day study on the Supreme Court. The study is supposed to focus on possible consequences of expanding the number of justices, changes in the way court nominees could be picked and the effects term limits could have.

Even though the study is far from over, there is a new legislation to pack the court being developed by Democrats in the house and senate. It seems likely the decision to pack the court has already been made by Democrat representatives and the study will just be a futile attempt to justify this momentous change. The legislation will add four new justices, making our 9 justices, 13.

The thing is, it’s not that Republicans are appointing necessarily republican judges the court. Republicans appoint originalist judges. Originalist judges interpret the law in the way its written. Not the way they want it to be written.

In the past the value of an unbiased judge was shared by Democrats and Republicans. However, in recent years Democrats have seen the Supreme Court less of an enforcer of laws and more as a legislator for laws. We elect legislators because they represent us and make the rules that govern us. So, when people start thinking of judges more as legislators, it may beg the question, why don’t we vote to elect our Judges? Judges are not supposed to represent Democrats or Republicans. They are not supposed to have opinions or biases. Justices are not elected because they simply interpret the law.

If we set a precedent to change the number of justices whenever one party does not like it, when the next Republican President is elected, can the Right just change it back? If Republicans become the majority in the next two or four years, could they just change it to whatever they want? This could just start a cycle of constantly revising the previous administrations work.

 The last time a president tried to pack the court was in the 1930’s.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to expand the court in the New Deal. It failed, miserably. Then and now, the idea of packing the court for political gain has been rejected by the people. That’s why Biden didn’t run with it during the election. According to The Washington Examiner only 34% of Americans support packing the court. With even the Left’s beloved Ruth Bater Ginsburg opposed court packing. In a 2019 interview with NPR, Ginsburg said “nine seems to be a good number.”

As it turns out, not even some current Democrat representatives want to pack the court. Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea saying, “I have no intention to bring it to the floor,” when asked about possible legislation to expand the court. This is a nice bit of sanity to see from Pelosi. It’s good to know some democrats recognize the consequences of such a change.

But for those who don’t understand, instead of rigging the system, how about convincing people to vote for Democrats? It is legal, but wrong to change the system to pass policy, instead of passing policy via getting elected by the people.

When Democrats won Georgia, and took control, it seemed like only a matter of time until they overstepped their boundaries. Now it is clear they have, and Republicans don’t hold power. The only way to stop this is to make it clear political votes are on the line if Democrats push this. Right wingers have the responsibility of making it known the majority of people are on our side. If representatives don’t listen to the people now, the people won’t listen to representatives in 2024.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.

If you experience technical problems, please write to helpdesk@americanthinker.com