Packing The Supreme Court?

President Biden passed a executive order this week creating a group to spend the next six months deciding if we should add justices to the Supreme Court.

NPR has a congressman on yesterday to support this move, and I was impressed when Scott Simon took him to task, essentially saying that you only want to add members because you think the conservatives have too much power currently. The man didn't defend himself very well.

But as a libertarian/conservative, I really don't believe the Supreme Court is a 6-3 conservative majority. Just yesterday a 5-4 decision was reached allowing families in California to hold religious services in their homes.
I find most of the conservatives on the Supreme Court to be independent thinkers. And are constantly surprised with some of their votes. Clarence Thomas is the only one who consistently votes conservative. And the Chief Justice John Roberts is a moderate in my eyes.

Latest update from the Supreme Court, liberals want liberal justice Breyer to retire so they can replace him with a younger justice, preferably a African-American women, the first in Supreme Court history.

Should Stephen step aside to achieve diversity goals?

The SCOTUS hold too much power. They were never meant to be a coequal branch of government but rather a check and balance in the other two branches. Congress was meant to wield the most power with the executive a lowly second. The founders didn’t want another king, elected or otherwise. They would be very disappointed with where we are today.

I believe you're right PS, the SC shouldn't have the kind of power Democrats want them to have. Imagine this insanely progressive administration with a Supreme Court that they were able to produce out of thin air to protect their Constitution altering agenda.

As always, if you asked a Democrat what they would have said if it was Trump looking into packing the court (or any Republican), they would be 100% against it, as they should be. But sadly we are living in a time where Democrats will silently support this because they believe we should all live by their rules.

Great debate topic. I will agree with you that the courts were not established to be an equal third leg of our government. The legislative branch was supposed to be dominant, but the Supreme Court quickly carved out a niche for itself and, frankly, I think it has been a good thing. One of the best parts of American democracy is that there are curbs on majority rule. And I think the Supreme Court, and also the Senate have saved the nation time after time from "mob rule". I can't imagine a parlimentary system where the majority party leader is also the leader of the nation.

I do like that many Democrats also think adding more Supreme Court justices is a bad idea. Maybe this EO is only window dressing to make the radicals like the "Gang of Four" happy.

The number of Justices on the Supreme Court changed six times before settling at the present total of nine in 1869.

It has not been expanded further since then.

Watch this backfire on the Democrats. Suppose it passes but then the GOP takes back the Senate in 2022? Four empty seats until the next GOP president? Or they negotiate a deal, four moderates? Or two conservatives and two liberals?

FredHayek wrote: Watch this backfire on the Democrats. Suppose it passes but then the GOP takes back the Senate in 2022? Four empty seats until the next GOP president? Or they negotiate a deal, four moderates? Or two conservatives and two liberals?

So Merrick Garland was not even given a vote 9 months before the 2016 election, reason given by the GOP was it was too close to the election and the next president should get to choose .... and yet Amy Coney Barrett was pushed through 9 days before the 2020 election, isn't that Packing the SCOTUS?

The screeching hypocrisy of the right can be down right hilarious to watch! LOL!

driver8 wrote:

FredHayek wrote: Watch this backfire on the Democrats. Suppose it passes but then the GOP takes back the Senate in 2022? Four empty seats until the next GOP president? Or they negotiate a deal, four moderates? Or two conservatives and two liberals?

So Merrick Garland was not even given a vote 9 months before the 2016 election, reason given by the GOP was it was too close to the election and the next president should get to choose .... and yet Amy Coney Barrett was pushed through 9 days before the 2020 election, isn't that Packing the SCOTUS?

The screeching hypocrisy of the right can be down right hilarious to watch! LOL!

In my eyes, it isn't court packing. It is only taking advantage of the current rules. The Democrats have a razor thin majority right now, in the old days, they would solve this by working with moderate Republicans like Mitt Romney. By loading the court, you are now setting up new rules that Republicans will take advantage of to pack the court when they take back the Senate, possibly as soon as 2022.