Report: Biden setting up commission that could lead to court-packing

Report: Biden setting up commission that could lead to court-packing
Image via Mental Recession

During the run-up to the 2020 election, Joe Biden was evasive about the subject of court packing. About the closest he came to expressing an opinion was in early October when he intimated he is “not a fan of court packing” but then went on to submit, “Look, what I want them to focus on, as I’ve respectfully suggested, court packing is going on now,” whatever that meant.

Now the Daily Mail reports that Biden is indeed moving forward with setting up a commission to study Supreme Court reforms which could pave the way for “court-packing.”

Biden repeatedly refused to state his position on court-packing during his campaign but did vow to set up a commission to study judiciary reforms.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

“The president remains committed to an expert study of the role and debate over reform of the court and will have more to say in the coming weeks,” a White House official told Fox News.

Politico reports that Biden has already begun naming people to the commission.

They note that two individuals have been chosen to co-chair the commission – Bob Bauer, who was Biden campaign’s lawyer, and Caroline Fredrickson, who “has hinted that she is intellectually supportive of ideas like court expansion.”

“The commission,” Fox News relays, “was Biden’s response to progressive demands to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court to overcome the 6-3 conservative majority, a practice known as ‘court-packing.’”

The far Left has made it clear they will at least consider packing the Supreme Court as a means to blunt the ruling of the conservative majority.

Biden’s Nebulous History on Court Packing

Biden once overtly opposed the idea of packing the Supreme Court, calling it a “bonehead idea” during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 1983. At the time, he referenced Roosevelt’s proposal to pack the court saying, “It put in question, if for an entire decade, the independence of the most-significant body … in this country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”

Now Biden seems content to throw the independence of the high court out the window.

Supreme Court Reform Opposed by the GOP

Republicans sense a growing movement pushing Biden to actually follow through on the far-left demands to engage in court-packing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is leading an effort to introduce a constitutional amendment that would block court-packing.

“Packing the Supreme Court is a radical, left-wing idea that would further undermine America’s confidence in our institutions and our democracy,” Rubio said in a statement. “If [President Biden] is sincere about healing our country and protecting our institutions, he will support this effort to protect the Supreme Court.”

Mitt Romney (R-Utah) joined with ten other Senate Republicans to back the amendment. “It remains imperative that we continue to resist efforts to pack the Supreme Court and treat it as if it is one of the elected branches of government,” Romney said.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, meanwhile, urged Democrats to use their new power in Washington, D.C. to move forward with the radical proposal to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices. “Our courts badly need reforms,” Holder said. “The Republicans have abused their power to give themselves an unfair advantage. It is necessary and totally appropriate to add seats.”

But Republicans did nothing more than do their constitutional duty to fill Supreme Court vacancies. If any party is abusing power it is the Democrats, who are trying to add seats arbitrarily to dilute the sway of conservatives on the court.

There is a huge difference.

In an interview with NPR last year, late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opposed the idea of expanding the court. “Nine seems to be a good number. It’s been that way for a long time,” she said, adding, “I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.”

Biden even in simply considering a commission that could lead to court-packing is turning the highest court in the land into a political football. If it happens, he and his party will come to rue the day.

Cross posted at the Mental Recession

Rusty Weiss

Rusty Weiss

Rusty Weiss is editor of the Mental Recession, one of the top conservative blogs of 2012. His writings have appeared at the Daily Caller, American Thinker, FoxNews.com, Big Government, the Times Union, and the Troy Record.

Comments

For your convenience, you may leave commments below using Disqus. If Disqus is not appearing for you, please disable AdBlock to leave a comment.