Some Democratic politicians want to pack the Supreme Court because they disagree with decisions by the current conservative majority. But it’s rather strange to argue for expanding the court while the GOP is still the party in a position to nominate and confirm new justices.
Take an op-ed this week by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) in the Los Angeles Times. He writes that the Supreme Court has “become an extension of our partisan politics.” One of his ideas for “repairing” it is to “expand the number of justices sitting on the court to reflect the expanded size of our nation.”
In 2023, then-Rep. Schiff co-sponsored legislation to pack the court with four more justices, for 13 total. Joe Biden was president then, and Democrats controlled the Senate, so expanding the court would have made it more liberal.
Now Donald Trump is president, and Republicans control the Senate. Is there still a need to expand the court to reflect the country’s “expanded size”? Trump would love the chance to fill more seats.
Schiff writes that “passing these reforms will be difficult in a Congress where Republicans have become rubber stamps for the president’s priorities.” But who says packing the court couldn’t be a Trump priority?
The justices have repudiated the president on key issues in his second term including tariffs, birthright citizenship, Federal Reserve independence and National Guard deployments. If Trump got to pick four additional justices, he might have won all those cases.
Perhaps Trump should urge GOP lawmakers to move ahead with Schiff’s legislation so he can nominate more justices before the midterms. Schiff says his proposals “would help restore balance and credibility to the court.”
Yet we somehow doubt Schiff would vote for his own legislation tomorrow. He undoubtedly would want the court to keep checking Republicans while they hold the White House. The idea is to gut judicial independence only when Democrats are in power.
Schiff should be relieved congressional Republicans respect the institution too much to take his ideas seriously.
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