Benjamin Franklin said in 1789, “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
Apparently, there is one other certainty in this world: Democrats will try to pack the Supreme Court.
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to add justices to the Supreme Court. His reason for doing so? Simple. The Supreme Court, at that point in time, was prone to overrule many of FDR’s New Deal laws.
Fast forward to 2021. The left is at it again.
This time, Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate are proposing adding four new members to the nine-member Supreme Court.
Why? Because, once again, the left is concerned that the Supreme Court, which presently seats six conservative-leaning justices and three liberal-leaning justices, will not rubber stamp its radical agenda.
On April 15, several prominent Democrats unveiled court-packing 2.0. The bill, titled the Judiciary Act of 2021, would alter the number of justices on the Supreme Court for the first time since 1869.
According to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), “There is nothing new about changing the size of the Supreme Court. The Constitution leaves the number of justices to the discretion of Congress, and Congress has changed that number 7 times already throughout our history. Our founders understood that, as the country and the judicial system evolved, the Court would need to evolve with it.”
He added, “This legislation represents a much-needed next step in that evolution.”
But Nadler is mistaken. Changing the size of the Supreme Court would be completely new in the modern era of American politics. Again, the number of justices on the Court has remained constant for the past 152 years.
Nadler also claims that, “Nine justices may have made sense in the nineteenth century when there were only nine circuits … But the logic behind having only nine justices is much weaker today, when there are 13 circuits … Our predecessors made eminent sense when they pegged the size of the Supreme Court to the number of judicial circuits. As our country has grown, so too should our Supreme Court.”
That is demonstrably false.
The original Supreme Court, formed in 1790, included six members. In that same year, the newly formed United States had three (not six) circuits: The Eastern, Middle, and Southern.
Yes, it is true that Congress has added judicial circuits over the years, but there has never been a direct correlation between the number of Supreme Court justices and the number of circuit courts.
For Nadler to argue that the current number of judicial circuits (13) should coincide with the number of Supreme Court justices is not based on historical precedent, but on his party’s frustration with the current make-up of the Court.
However, Nadler is far from the only Democrat making false claims to support court-packing.
Consider these gross exaggerations.
Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY): “Our democracy is hanging by a thread. And the far-right majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is cutting it … If a law suppresses the right to vote, it is constitutional; if a law protects the right to vote, especially for Black and brown voters, it is unconstitutional. The American people have had enough. To restore power to the people, we must expand the Supreme Court.”
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA): “Republicans stole the Court’s majority, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation completing their crime spree … Senate Republicans have politicized the Supreme Court, undermined its legitimacy, and threatened the rights of millions of Americans, especially people of color, women, and our immigrant communities. This legislation will restore the Court’s balance and public standing and begin to repair the damage done to our judiciary and democracy, and we should abolish the filibuster to ensure we can pass it.”
Leave it to the left to gaslight this issue. They always do. Throwing race into the argument does little to advance the conversation.
However, in today’s America, it is easy (although intellectually lazy) to inject race into any issue, regardless of whether or not race has anything to do with it.
One more thing, for all the talk about democracy and “we the people,” what do Americans think about packing the Supreme Court?
According to recent polls, most Americans do not support adding justices to the Supreme Court.
Once again, the left’s latest plan to pack the Court is not about expanding democracy. It is about one thing and one thing only: Expanding the power of the Democratic Party.
