On September 18, 2020 news broke that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away after a final battle with cancer. President Donald Trump was still in the White House, with just under two months before the next election, and would move swiftly to nominate her replacement. Unlike President Obama during his last year in office, Trump had a same party majority in the Senate and a constitutional path forward.
Immediately, Democrats started to panic. They issued threats of court packing should Trump follow through with a nomination and if Republicans in the Senate dared to vote for confirmation.
“Let me be clear: If Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans move forward with this, then nothing is off the table for next year,” then-Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
“When Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court,” Democrat Senator Ed Markey proclaimed.
Once President Trump — thoroughly backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — announced the nomination of then-U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the position, Democrats continued their threats and added on bad faith arguments in an attempt to damage her confirmation process.
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They did this by dishonestly accusing President Trump of court packing, which is the expansion of courts. Trump never expanded the number of Supreme Court justices or federal judgeships, he simply filled open vacancies.
“It’s rushed. It constitutes court packing,” Democrat Senator Chris Coons claimed ahead of confirmation hearings for Barrett in October 2020.
Eight months later and with Joe Biden in the Oval Office, Democrats are attempting to follow through on their promise and have officially proposed expanding the number of justices from nine to 13. In other words and as they projected, they've advocating for the true definition of court packing.
“The Republicans stole two seats on the Supreme Court,” Markey said this week. “We undo the damage that the Republicans have done by restoring balance. And we do it by adding four seats to the court.”
Republicans didn’t steal anything, and after four years of screaming about President Trump “breaking norms,” Democrats are prepared to destroy over 150 years of tradition, not to mention the integrity or independence of the court. The Left’s latest move is based purely on revenge against President Trump, who broke no norms or rules to replace Justice Ginsburg with Justice Barrett. A one-for-one, constitutional replacement backed by the Senate.
The White House won’t take an official position on the legislation, but is touting President Biden’s newly created Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court to “study” the issue. In the past, Biden repeatedly made his views on court packing clear and said the practice was a “corrupt” power grab.
"President Roosevelt clearly had the right to send to the United States Senate and the United States Congress a proposal to pack the court. It was totally within his right to do that. He violated no law. He was legalistically, absolutely correct. But it was a bonehead idea,” Senator Biden said. ”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 included in my view—in this country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America."
Not to mention, Biden said during the 2020 campaign he does not support court packing, yet the left flank of his party is pushing him closer for the sake of solidifying indefinite Democrat power and guaranteeing leftist rulings. Democrats are drunk on power and they don't plan on sobering up anytime soon.
