Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2020
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by Outside Contributor
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23 Comments
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would form a commission to evaluate the Supreme Court when he was asked about expanding the court past the current threshold of nine justices.
The move, or “packing the court,” has been floated by a number of Democratic lawmakers after Republicans moved to nominate and have all but confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court following Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last month.
Biden told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that he would create a bipartisan group to provide recommendations within a half-year on how his administration would deal with the Supreme Court.
“If elected, what I will do is I’ll put together a national commission of, bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberal-conservative,” the former vice president remarked. He added that they will have 180 days to come up with recommendations on “how to reform the court system because it’s getting out of whack, the way in which it’s being handled.”
“And it’s not about court-packing. There’s a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated and I’ve looked to see what recommendations that commission might make,” he added. In the interview, Biden did not say whether he is in favor of or against packing the court.
Republicans say that with the latest comments on the Supreme Court, Biden is being pushed further to the left by members of his own party.
“Voters should be incredibly concerned Democrats are considering any reforms to the Supreme Court, much less reforms that go further than court packing,” said Jesse Hunt, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a statement after Biden’s latest comments. “Biden’s answer on this issue shows just how far to the left he’s being pushed by the most liberal members of his party, and Senate Democrats are riding shotgun on this radical takeover attempt.”
Both Biden and vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris have faced criticism from the GOP and President Donald Trump’s campaign after they refused to say whether they would pack the court. During the first presidential debate, Biden refused to answer the question, later telling a reporter asked if voters deserve to know his position on the controversial move, he replied “no, they don’t.” He later apologized.
Biden later said it the court-packing claims are a distraction.
“I’m not a fan of court-packing, but I don’t want to get off on that whole issue. I want to keep focused,” Biden told CBS affiliate WKRC in October. “The president [Trump] would like nothing better than to fight about whether or not I would in fact pack the court or not pack the court, et cetera. The focus is, why is he doing what he’s doing now?”
Court-packing is a term used to describe legislation that changes the number of seats on the Supreme Court to presumably change its ideological makeup.
Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to expand the court from 9 justices to 15 by adding a new justice for every sitting one who wouldn’t retire after their 70th birthday.
He came up with the plan in 1937 after he won his second term in office, saying that the Supreme Court was taking too long to render decisions on important cases. However, critics said that Roosevelt was aimed at changing the ideological makeup of the court to push through New Deal programs.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett despite a Democratic boycott. Democrats filled their seats with photos of people who rely on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
“This has been a sham process from the beginning,” wrote Senate Democrats in a statement. “Amidst a global pandemic and ongoing election, Republicans are rushing to confirm a Supreme Court Justice to take away health care from millions and execute the extreme and deeply unpopular agenda that they’ve been unable to get through Congress.”
Democrats have alleged that Barrett, if confirmed, would strike down key provisions of Obamacare when the issue comes to the Supreme Court in mid-November. Barrett would give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the court.
Good!! She’s a constitutional jurist and needs to be a member of the highest court!!
So Biden / Harris would appoint a bi-partisan commission composed of Democrats and a handful of RINOs to recommend the Supreme Court “problem” be rectified by increasing the size of the court to 15 members. In other words court packing to ensure a permanent leftist Democrat court. All the new members being of course ultra liberal Democrats, who will rubber stamp whatever the Democrats want as “constitutional”.
I don’t see Biden’s handlers to allow him to pull together a bi-partisan commission of anything going forward. The Dems are after pure political power with no interference from any other political group.
I love commissions because commissions are a politician’s way of saying that they are going to do something when they have no intention of doing anything.
In this case, that’s a good thing.
“…and execute the extreme and deeply unpopular agenda that they’ve been unable to get through Congress.”
That exactly describes the Progressive-Socialists’ tactics. It’s a historical fact that Fascists & Communists accuse their targets of just what They are guilty of. We’ve seen that time & time again in the last 4 years.
“…come up with recommendations on ‘how to reform the court system because it’s getting out of whack, the way in which it’s being handled.’”
Translation: We Progressive-Socialists see the SCOTUS as an impediment to forcing implementation of our America-wrecking agenda. Therefore, it is time we eliminated this outmoded branch of govt. as proposed in our “reform” package.
For Democrats, “reform” means COURT STACKING.
Ridiculous. We DO NOT need to spend money on another investigation or commission. To tell us what? Biden is a deceiver and liar. Just follow the CONSTITUTION. People we elect to office need to do their job and stop wasting our money and time! And we need to hold them accountable.
Biden incapsulates everything I despise in a politician. Biden will appoint a commission alright – a commission headed by AOC! The result will be to pack the SCOTUS! Of course Biden refuses to say it! The anti-America demon George Soros supports the democrat communist party! I can’t understand why anyone votes democrat?
I would expect nothing less from a Democrat run Government. How sad and scary.
DemocRats were okay with electoral college when Obama was in office for 2 terms, they want to abolish it with a Republican in office.
Supreme Court is ok with 9 when a DemocRat is in office, Republican in office they wanna expand the Supreme Court.
Liberal hypocrisy at its best.
Commission to violate the constitution? Doesn’t that mean China Joe is admitting to be an internal enemy of the constitution?
The phrase, “form a commission to evaluate the Supreme Court…” is Democrat Socialese which translates, “we will pack the Supreme Court. The arrogance of the Democrats to think American citizens want a left-wing activist court! Far from it Senator Schumer and Senator Harris and former VP Biden and Speaker Pelosi.