Flashback: Liberals Who Opposed Court Packing, What Changed?
President Joe Biden who was a senator at the time opposed court packing and critcized former Presidnet Franklin D Roosevelt’s attempts to do so.
While liberal Justice Stephen Breyer spoke at a Harvard lecture in which he warned agaisnt court packing’s effect on the Supreme Court’s reputation and legitamcy.
Late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also opposed court packing and stated in an interview that 9 was a solid number even though some Democrats openly scheme to expand the court.
Senator Markey announced earlier today, “And we do it by adding four seats to the court to create a 13 member Supreme Court. These four new seats, to be filled by President Biden will reconstitute the United States Supreme Court. The bench will then rightly reflect the values of the majority of the American people on whose behalf they serve. Expanding the court is constitutional.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi currently does not support the effort by Democratic congressional leaders to expand the Supreme Court.
“I support the president’s commission to study a such a proposal,” she continued, going on to say that she and her members were focused on President Biden’s infrastructure package and not the federal judiciary,” reported by NY Post.
Biden said that former President Roosevelt had the right to send a proposal to pack the court and ‘it was totally within his right to do that’ but had called it a bonehead idea.
“It was a terrible, terrible mistake to make. And it put in question for an entire decade, the independence of the most significant body, including the Congress, in my view, the most significant body in this country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America. The president had the right to do that. He was totally within his power and have his objective was seen clearly,” Biden said back then.
Justice Stephen Breyer said the Harvard lecture, “The rule of law has weathered many threats, but it remains sturdy, I hope and expect that the court will retain its authority. But that authority, like the rule of law, depends on trust, a trust that the court is guided by legal principle, not politics. Structural alteration motivated by the perception of political influence can only feed that latter perception.”
“I have heard that there are some people on the Democratic side who would like to increase the number of judges. I think that was a bad idea when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to pack the court. His plan was for every justice who stays on the court past the age of 70, the president would have authority to nominate another justice. If that plan had been effective, The court’s number would have swelled immediately from nine to 15 and the president will have six appointments,” late Justice Ginsburg said.
