Court-packing (Part I): speculating on the Democrats’ current strategy
There is virtually no question in my mind that the Democrats want to control SCOTUS. The only unknown is if and how they will accomplish it.
Today, as promised, Democrats introduced legislation to pack the Court and increase the number of justices to 13, sponsored by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y..
Why are they doing this? It’s for the People!! Here’s Representative Mondaire Jones on the subject:
Our democracy is under assault, and the Supreme Court has dealt the sharpest blows.
To restore power to the people, we must #ExpandTheCourt.
I’ve been expecting this. But it seems to me likely that the Democrats don’t think they have the votes to pass it in both houses, so why would they even put it to a vote? Why not wait, try to pass HR1, and no matter what (with or without HR1) make sure they win control of the House and Senate in 2022 by a large enough margin to do it? Then they won’t need Joe Manchin’s permission.
The idea that this isn’t going to happen right now is supported by the fact that Pelosi made this announcement earlier today:
Pelosi was asked during a press briefing if she supported a bill brought forward by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to expand the Supreme Court by four seats and if she would bring it to the House floor.
“No. I support the president’s commission to study such a proposal, but frankly I’m not — right now, we’re back, our members, our committees are working. We’re putting together the infrastructure bill and the rest,” Pelosi said.
Of course, Pelosi could go back on her word, and there is no reason to trust that she won’t do so. But I think her statement was an indication that (a) she doesn’t have the votes or the Senate doesn’t; and/or (b) she believes it’s politically expedient to wait. Nothing they do is by accident, though – she certainly is allowing Nadler et al to introduce this bill right now, and it’s for a reason.
I saw this comment at another blog:
Step 1 Abolish the filibuster
Step 2 Pack court
Step 3 Pass HR 1
End game Total control of all three branches of government plus federal elections equals permanent hold on power.
I have little doubt that’s what they’d like to do. But my guess is that they will wait, just as Pelosi says, in order to pretend to have the commission “study” it for a while. They don’t want to unduly alarm the voters prior to the 2022 elections, and they are hoping they will win those elections and then they can pack the Court.
Even if they don’t win, though, introducing this bill today fulfills other goals. For one thing, it somewhat placates the huge leftist wing of the Party. But perhaps even more importantly, it’s a signal to the SCOTUS justices that the Democrats will pack the Court the minute they get the chance, if the justices don’t rule in ways that the Democrats want. Roberts is especially susceptible to such threats, I believe. And lastly, it gives Biden’s commission cover, conveying the idea that it will undertake an objective study, and will issue non-partisan recommendations – recommendations that are likely to end up being much like today’s bill.
Is there anyone who thinks that the Democrats would be supporting this move if Republicans were still in charge of the presidency and the Senate, and a GOP president would be appointing the justices and a GOP Senate in charge of approving the nominations? Of course they wouldn’t. And no, Republicans have never backed such a thing when they have been in charge.
At this point, Republicans are speaking out against it. For example:
“Packing the Supreme Court would destroy the Supreme Court,” tweeted Tom Cotton, senator for Arkansas. “The Democrats will do anything for power.”
Well, of course it would. That’s a feature for the Democrats, not a bug. They aim to control all the levers of power.
Note that in 1937, when FDR proposed to pack the Court, many Democrats joined the Republicans in being opposed to the scheme. That’s changed. Note also, though, the outcome of FDR’s tactics. Although the court-packing never happened, he got control of the Court anyway:
In April, however, before the bill came to a vote in Congress, two Supreme Court justices came over to the liberal side and by a narrow majority upheld as constitutional the National Labor Relations Act and the Social Security Act. The majority opinion acknowledged that the national economy had grown to such a degree that federal regulation and control was now warranted. Roosevelt’s reorganization plan was thus unnecessary, and in July the Senate struck it down by a vote of 70 to 22. Soon after, Roosevelt had the opportunity to nominate his first Supreme Court justice, and by 1942 all but two of the justices were his appointees.
Democrats got control in the end, without the need to pack the Court. Note the size of that Senate vote against court-packing, though – and this was at a point when Democrats controlled the Senate with a hefty supermajority. They still retained some integrity back then.
[NOTE: In Part II, I plan to discuss the ways in which this court-packing tactic – including first appointing a commission to study it and make recommendations – parallels Chavez’s moves in Venezuela as he was solidifying his dictatorship.]
That Pelosi can’t even pretend to support court packing tells you how much opposition there is to it from from red state Democrats and corporate America.
For my part? Bring it on. This is what millions of Americans voted for when they cast a ballot for Joe Biden after he spit in their face and publicly refused to answer where he stood on court packing. This is what the GOP establishment invited when they sat back and let Trump be savaged non-stop for four years.
I wish there was another way but as the guy said in “Law Abiding Citizen”…
“Lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten.”
Mike
Can SOCTUS investigate the possibility of creating two presidents. One for red America and one for blue America. Each could pass executive orders and thus represent all of the voters?
Once the collective Leftist hive gets a idea all work to achieve it.
Roberts court has already been owned running scared of this.
Re: “End game Total control of all three branches of government plus federal elections equals permanent hold on power.”
The left’s ideological fanaticism prevents them from seeing what the result of them gaining what they imagine will be a permanent hold on power.
They will find that in reality, they are now upon the proverbial tiger’s back, one they cannot control nor safely dismount from…
I have wondered for some time what the Democrats have on Roberts. Probably something to do with his adopted kids. He is also a coward. Kavanaugh is a squish and ACB showed she was a waste of the trouble to get her on the court. It is just astonishing to watch the judicial system accept the coup of 2020. Not a whimper.
Watching the end… the body dying of many cancers come to feast…
the carcass not even cold as the vultures pick over the bones…
to the leftists… be careful what you wish for, you may get it…
Artfldgr:
Good and Proper, one hopes.
Still, Court Packing is a good test for the Bow Tie Brigade. If they don’t show up at the barricades for this, we’ll know they were never serious.
“If they don’t show up at the barricades for this, we’ll know they were never serious.”
NARRATOR: They were never serious.
I just checked George Will’s output since the start of the year. ZERO columns on the southern border crisis (though one from early January lauding America’s “unauthorized” immigrants. Seriously. That’s what he called them. “Unauthorized” immigrants) and TWO…count’em…TWO columns praising Biden’s supposedly tough stance toward China.
Mike
Intimidating SCOTUS is the primary goal. It may work; of the six ‘conservative’ justices, only Thomas and Alito are unyielding. Roberts could be intimidated by a butterfly. As for the three Trump appointees…TBD. But I have my doubts if it got really heated, all three of them would stay strong
Geoffrey Britain,
All dictators face the same dilemma.
It has been said that the biggest problem with the dictatorship business is that it has a lousy retirement plan.
I have a ‘sinking feeling’ that the Dems radical ideas, if they succeed, are going to backfire on them. That would be a ‘all good’.
Americans are not Venezuelan, but I definitely see the comparison. In 1980 I lived in the Caribbean and met individuals from all over the world. We were on a sail boat that we sailed from Lake Superior. There were a lot of boats from Scandinavia, Western Europe, South Africa, the Americans North and South. The flashiest yachts at the docks were owned by Venezuelans. They had money to burn, more than other countries. Venezuela was the richest country in South America. Yes, there were things that could be improved, but their radical ways of their socialist government turn the country into a disaster.
Money and power in the USA over the decades has been concentrated on a smaller and smaller group of individuals that consist of tech giants to leadership in government. It is appalling how mendacious, disgusting and ignorant this group of leaders has become. MBunde has a point; ‘Bring it On!’ These old decrepit, ‘leaders’ need to fail. Or we will be like Venezuela.
It is remarkable how politically incompetent the GOP is showing itself to be. Maybe not though, it is possible they prefer and enjoy permanent minority status. They can pronounce their principles in opposition to what the Dems do and still collect their grift.
Who needs a solid majority in congress when she commands a president with a pen and not afraid to use it to pass the same thing by executive order.
And if you think the GOP RINOs are going to vote against packing the court with far left partisan judges, think again.
They’re 5th columnists, the lot of them.
“Bring it on…”
Well one might certainly sympathize…except that Biden didn’t win the election…
Which leaves us where, exactly?
(Though I suppose one could make the claim that he “won”….)
Nonetheless, without skipping a heartbeat, and with perfect gravitas, says the man who stole the election (The Man Who Would Be Pres.?):
‘Prepared to respond if Russia interferes with our democracy’—Yes he is. Indeed he is….
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/537705
So what will it be? A collective sigh of relief? A collective sigh of disbelief? A collective Bronx cheer?
But without a doubt the comic-tragedian of our times… Or is utter shamelessness just another advantage of dementia?…
They’re not really aiming at the SCOTUS, that’s just the tactics they’re using. Their true aim is at the Bill of Rights. Those Pesky 10 keep getting in their way, and I don’t think there’s a single one that the Dems support whole-heartedly.
That’s entirely possible, Ann. Entirely.
But I’m of the opinion that the Left are aiming to add an eleventh: The Right to LIE and the Force people to believe you. (Perhaps even the Absolute Duty to LIE):
https://twitter.com/sullydish/status/1382793955545321475
H/T Ron Coleman twitter feed.
(Whom did Andrew Sullivan support again?)
Something to ponder… (or not):
https://townhall.com/columnists/chrisstigall/2021/04/15/fascism-hasnt-changed–neither-has-its-pitchman-n2587963?1516
File under: Mo’ better transformation.
JTW:
I don’t think this one could happen through executive order. SCOTUS would say no to that – and SCOTUS wouldn’t have been packed at that point.
Right now, the GOP is united against the court-packing move, and even some Democrats seem to be against it. If the GOP wasn’t resisting the bill, then Nancy Pelosi would have brought the bill up for a vote and it would have passed. Same in the Senate. All they would have needed for that was a few votes from the right. And yet, they clearly didn’t have even those few votes, or the bill would have been passed.
I understand frustration with the GOP. But it is a mixed bag. Some GOP members of Congress are fine, Turning against them all has the end result of empowering the Democrats further.