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| AP Photo/Evan Vucci |
The Biden administration is assembling a bipartisan commission to consider expanding the US Supreme Court — an idea that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this week called “the big one.”
Several leading lawyers and former Justice Department officials have been recruited for the panel, which is expected to have between nine and 15 members, Politico said Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the plan.
At least one prospective appointee — former American Constitution Society president Caroline Fredrickson — has voiced support for potentially expanding the Supreme Court, Politico said.
“I often point out to people who aren’t lawyers that the Supreme Court is not defined as a ‘nine person body’ in the Constitution, and it has changed size many times,” Fredrickson reportedly said in 2019. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Mandel Ngan / Getty Images |
A new coalition wants to build momentum on the left to add seats to the Supreme Court and undo Trump’s legacy on the bench.
President Joe Biden inherited dozens of federal court vacancies to fill when he took office, and more seats already are opening up, but liberal groups are ramping up efforts to convince the White House and Congress that it’s not enough.
Faced with a 6–3 conservative majority on the US Supreme Court and 200-plus lower court judges confirmed under former president Donald Trump, a new coalition of liberal groups called “Unrig the Courts” is launching this week with the goal of building public support and political momentum for dramatic structural changes, BuzzFeed News has learned. They’re advocating adding seats to the Supreme Court and the lower courts, and imposing term limits and more stringent ethics and transparency rules for the high court’s justices.
Adding more judgeships, or “court-packing,” is the most politically explosive item on their list. A largely dormant idea since former president Franklin Roosevelt tried, and failed, to add seats to the Supreme Court in the 1930s, it started gaining traction again among Democrats as Trump filled the federal bench. But Biden has said that he doesn’t support it, and Democrats’ slim new majority in the US Senate leaves little wiggle room — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, has also said he’s against adding judgeships.
Still, Aaron Belkin, founder of Take Back the Court and a driving force behind the left’s court reform push, said the new coalition will focus on gaining support at the grassroots level — buying ads and organizing events and outreach — as well as “aggressively” lobbying Congress and the White House. He believes more Democrats will get on board if the Supreme Court and lower court judges confirmed under Trump block Biden’s progress on issues that matter to his base, like abortion, civil rights, and immigration; less than a week after Biden was sworn in, a federal judge in Texas nominated by Trump issued an order blocking Biden’s temporary freeze on deportations. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
Biden starts staffing a commission on Supreme Court reform
Biden begins staffing commission to study Supreme Court reform: report
Biden 'committed' to study Supreme Court reforms as progressives push for court packing
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