As of this post, four of the eight judges on the United States Supreme Court have been appointed by presidents who failed to win the votes of the majority of Americans and those judges have been confirmed by a senate whose leader and the party he leads do not represent a majority of Americans. That number of judges is expected to increase to five, resulting in a majority of judges, five out of nine, nominated and confirmed by the minority
All of this is legal, allowed by the Constitution of the United States of America.
There is a bit of hysteria from the talking heads of the extremist right wing that now controls our nation, fearing what they and their willing accomplices in the media refer to as “packing the court” by Democrats should they win the White House and regain control of the Senate.
We must refrain from using or even acknowledging the term “packing”. It sounds corrupt. It sounds underhanded and deceitful.
We will not pack the court.
As I have explained previously, our Supreme Court is now out of alignment with the American people. A majority of its judges do not fall within the political spectrum of the majority of the American people. Our governments role is to serve the people. In order to better serve the people, our government at every level, should best reflect the needs and beliefs of the people, of course all within the law and subject to our Constitution.
We will align the court.
When we elect a Democratic president and should Democrats control the Senate, it is our duty to the American people to align the court to better reflect the American people that it serves. How many judges? Which judges? We’ll let you know when we get the opportunity. It is our right. It is our obligation.
and……All of this is legal, allowed by the Constitution of the United States of America.
This is absolutely true.
I join you in recoiling whenever the phrase “pack the court” is used by an allegedly objective source.
The court’s *been* packed.
The real question is if there’s no response whatsoever to McConnell’s bad faith. There is no “moving on” from that. He held seats open; he packed the court. And as John says it’s with a totally anti-democratic origin and effect.
It’s not legitimate, and it can’t stand.
I’m not being facetious when I write of the importance of impeaching every judiciary appointment of Donald Trump.
Maybe our rhetorical strategy should be to “unpack” the Court. I do think there is a logic to expanding to 12 Associate Justices which would give each one circuit with CJ responsible for the Federal Circuit. I’d even be OK doing this incrementally and say one will be added each biennium until we get to twelve.
What about ties? Also six years is a long time in politics and Democrats might not have the trifecta needed to implement that. I agree it’s a good government reform.
Another I think they can simultaneously pass is Ro Khanna’s term limits bill which would in fact create that two year time line you prefer and by starting the limits with our added justices we both check the GOPs power grab and also ensure a regular and non-partisan confirmation process going forward.
No more Merrick Garlands. No more rushed ACB or Kavanaugh nominations. No more Borking either. This restores regular order and a modicum of non-partisanship to the highest court in the land.
https://fixthecourt.com/fix/term-limits/
By extension:
We used to have a sort of unwritten constitution of norms that the Right has systematically shattered.
At this point, any constitutional means to correct the systemic imbalances the Right has introduced should be fair game.
Let’s have no pearl-clutching about the court or anything else. The Right has already broken all that.
Failure to do so would be an abrogation of responsibility to the country.
I found the Gin and Tacos podcast on FDR’s court-packing scheme to be instructive. Possibly one reason FDR’s plan failed was he gave BS reasons for it. FDR should have just said, “The Court is out of alignment with the vast majority of the nation, so we should have more Justices.” JohnTMay, you have a much better description of the solution to the problem of Court filled with out-of-touch extremists.