Posted on 06/30/2026 8:56:25 PM PDT by algore
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) is alarmed that Democrats might expand the membership of the Supreme Court
It is true that leading Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, have welcomed “ideas, for example, that are about Supreme Court reform, including the notion of expanding the court.” But it is wrong to call it court-packing. In fact, the Supreme Court has already been strategically stacked by President Trump and his Senate allies, entrenching an illegitimate conservative supermajority.
Adding four seats under the next Democratic trifecta would actually be unpacking the court.
After Justice Antonin Scalia died on Feb 13. 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace him, under Article II of the Constitution.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) deployed Senate rules so that Garland did not even get a committee hearing
Scalia’s seat remained empty, leaving an eight-member court for more than a year. Trump’s nominee to replace him, Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed on April 7, 2017.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg then died on Sept. 18, 2020, when absentee voting was already underway for the November presidential election. This time, there was no talk from McConnell or any other Republican about waiting for the next president. Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination was rushed through in near-record time. She was confirmed on Oct. 26 and sworn in the following day. It was barely a week before Joe Biden would be elected president.
That is what court packing really looks like.
The packed right-wing supermajority brought the most extensive retraction of individual and democratic rights since the end of the Jim Crow era, with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the immunization of Trump for crimes committed in office, the authorization of relentless partisan gerrymanders and most recently the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Thune will not permit it though he might go along with a Democrat president’s intention to add justices.
Yeah. Reagan thought he was doing the right thing with Sandra Day O’Connor.
If the women don’t come in as lefties, they seem to “fall left” eventually, as you say. I’m sick of women in politics.
Oh look! The Hill put "illegitimate" in a sentence, but can't quite explain how or why they did.
Wow, probably hafta go to school a long time to get that stupid
We need to proceed as if the system were completely broken, because it is.
+1
First of all, the court is 5-4 "conservative", at best, and that assumes that the judicial gyrations of ACB spin to the right at any particular moment. Second, why would it be "illegitimate" if it actually WAS a "conservative supermajority"? Is the author suggesting that there was never a "liberal supermajority", or that if there was, it was somehow more "legitimate"?
I thought Scalia was murdered.
Well, if it is not court packing let’s get started on expansion. Let’s go from 9 to 15 and Trump gets 6 more picks. This person’s tune would change quick.
I never thought it a good idea but…..
Making the filibuster real would be nice
The republicans should beat the dems to the punch and put forth legislation to expand the Supreme Court while Trump is president. Let the dems go into histrionics about it being unconstitutional and put them all on record as being opposed to it. Unfortunately, they have no shame and are not held to the same standards of consistency as the republicans are.
The Dems view “packing the court” the same way they do elections. The threat of Republicans receiving a majority of the legitimate votes FORCES the Dems to register fake voters; harvest/manufacture/”adjudicate” ballots; and, continue “counting” until the Dems win. It’s their opponents’ fault for making them cheat...
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) deployed Senate rules so that Garland did not even get a committee hearing”
McConnell’s finest hour.
Yes, Trump should expand it to 21 justices and make 12 lifetime appointments.
The ostensible reason teh Democrats landd on 13 i that there are 13 circuits. (The real reason is they need four more votes to restore tehir majority.)
We should borrow tehir logic and add four. Seven of those would be Trump appointees.
Playing politics.
Sad.
IF they got off their butts and got the right things done they’d have bigger majorities.
They don’t because they are weak.
We need to proceed as if the system were completely broken, because it is.
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