Democrats to unveil legislation to pack the Supreme Court with 4 more justices



Democrats in the House and Senate are planning to introduce legislation to expand the Supreme Court from the current 9 members to 13.

The plan to pack the court was first reported by Ryan Grim of The Intercept on Wednesday. It is sponsored in the Senate Sen. Ed Markey (D) of Massachusetts and in the House by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D) of New York.

Far-left partisans have pressed for Democrats to push the controversial plan since former President Donald Trump was able to fill the seat held by liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative.

While President Joe Biden had refused to say before the election if he would support the plan, Democrats appear to be eager to rush headlong into the plot.

The report was later confirmed by NBC News and inspired a contentious interaction during a House committee hearing when Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded to know from Nadler if the report was true.

https://t.co/4QcxdgE6me
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Rep. Jim Jordan)1618446285.0

Nadler refused to answer the question and said that Jordan was acting inappropriately.

Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York, was less shy to admit to the court-packing plan.

"Our democracy is under assault, and the Supreme Court has dealt the sharpest blows. To restore power to the people, we must #ExpandTheCourt. That's why I'm introducing the Judiciary Act of 2021 with @RepJerryNadler, @RepHankJohnson, and @SenMarkey to add four seats to SCOTUS," he tweeted.

The Supreme Court has been composed of nine members since 1869, for 152 years. The Constitution does not set out how many members must be on the Supreme Court.

That convention was almost broken when Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt suggested in 1937 that he might expand the court with jurists who would be sympathetic to his unconstitutional plans to combat the Great Depression. Members of his own party balked at the plan and he was forced to abandon his "court-packing" scheme.

Despite the long history of Democrats trying to pack the highest court of the land, it is unlikely to be successful given the 50-50 split in the Senate and the presence of some moderate Democrats who are reticent to support far left legislation.

Here's more about the Democrats' newest plot to pack the court:

House, Senate Democrats plan to add 4 Supreme Court justices: Reportwww.youtube.com

Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono: Packing the court is 'long overdue'



Senate Democrats are telling the American people they are ready to go all in on packing the Supreme Court if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the election in November. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) is the latest in a growing chorus of Democrats vowing to expand the court, calling the extreme legislation "long overdue court reform."

"This is long overdue court reform as far as I'm concerned, and I have been thinking about court reform and what we can do regarding the Supreme Court to make it so much more objective," Hirono said on CNN Tuesday.

Sen Hirono Insists Court Packing “Long Overdue," To Be Discussed “If The Dems Take Back The Senate" www.youtube.com

"This is not something that a lot of us have not thought about," she added. But she acknowledged a "serious discussion" about packing the courts can only happen "if the Democrats take back the Senate."

Nine justices have sat on the Supreme Court for more than 150 years. The Constitution grants Congress the power to determine the size of the court, though the last serious attempt to change its makeup came during the New Deal, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt threatened to expand the court to as many as 15 justices. FDR's opponents accused Roosevelt of attempting to "pack" the courts with justices sympathetic to his policies after various New Deal programs were initially declared unconstitutional.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has so far refused to say whether he would approve of a Democrat-led effort in Congress to expand the court. Confronted by a reporter in Wisconsin on Monday, Biden dodged.

"It's a legitimate question. But let me tell you why I'm not going to answer that question: because it will shift all the focus. That's what [President Donald Trump] wants," he said. "He never wants to talk about the issue at hand. He always tries to change the subject."

Previously, Biden publicly opposed expanding the court, telling Iowa Starting Line last year, "I'm not prepared to go on and try to pack the court, because we'll live to rue that day."

During a Democratic primary debate in October, Biden again opposed the idea. "I would not get into court packing," Biden said. "We add three justices. Next time around, we lose control, they add three justices. We begin to lose any credibility the court has at all."

But many Senate Democrats don't agree.

"Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year," Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tweeted Friday. "If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court."

Among the Democratic senators who ran for president in the primary, Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said they were open to the idea of expanding the courts.

Biden refuses to say if he'd pack the Supreme Court with liberals if Republicans fill Ginsburg's seat



Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden refused to say whether he'd sign on to a plan to pack the Supreme Court with more liberal justices if the Republicans are able to fill late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the high court.

The former vice president made the comments on Monday in an interview with WBAY-TV.

"Let me tell you why I'm not gonna answer that question. Because it would shift all the focus," Biden said.

Democrats have tried to pressure the Republicans against trying to fill the seat, vacated by Ginsburg's death, by threatening to expand the court and pack it with more liberal justices. The Constitution does not stipulate how many justices should be on the Supreme Court.

"That's what he wants, he never wants to talk about the issue at hand he always tries to change the subject," Biden said of the president.

"But let's say I answer that question, then the whole debate's gonna be about what Biden said or didn't say. Biden said he would or wouldn't," he explained.

"The discussion should be about why he's moving in a direction totally that's totally inconsistent with what the founders wanted. The design in the Constitution it says, the design, voters get to pick the president, who gets to make the pick, and the Senate gets to decide," Biden said.

"We're in the middle of an election right now, you know, people are voting now. By the time this Supreme Court hearing would be held if they hold one, we'd in fact, we'd probably, there's estimated 30 to 40 percent of the American people would already have voted," he continued.

"It is a fundamental breach of constitutional principle," Biden concluded.

On Monday, the Republicans in the Senate appear to have enough support from their party to move ahead with the nomination process once the president makes it.

"We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg's replacement before the election, we're going to move forward in the committee, we're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Here's the video of Biden's comments:

Biden to @WBAY declines to answer q on adding seats to SCOTUS if GOP replaces RBG"It’s a legitimate question, but… https://t.co/YWznHyW9k3
— Johnny Verhovek (@Johnny Verhovek)1600741371.0