The Number of Cases Reviewed by the Supreme Court Has
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020, many Americans didn't take the proper time to grieve — instead, they panicked about what her passing meant for the future of the state. Belongings the residue of an unabridged commonwealth is too great a burden for anyone'due south shoulders, and Justice Ginsburg had been carrying that weight for a long, long time. Instead of holding space for her passing, Republican politicians wasted no fourth dimension in queuing up a nominee for the empty Supreme Courtroom seat, eventually landing on Amy Coney Barrett — a longtime Notre Matriarch Law School professor who served fewer than three years on the Seventh Circuit before her nomination to the highest courtroom in the American judicial arrangement.
In 2016, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell infamously vowed to block President Obama's outgoing Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland on the grounds that the American people should have a "voice" and that to rush a nomination (and confirmation) would be to overly politicize the outcome. In 2020, still, McConnell didn't hold to those principles he outlined 4 years before, leading to Barrett'due south confirmation hearings and equally rushed swearing in ceremony, which took place near a week before Ballot Day on Oct 26, 2020.
This movement led many to criticize McConnell, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC), who simply tweeted, "Expand the court." Additionally, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (@EdMarkey), who is Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal co-author, tweeted, "Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Courtroom."
The Number of Supreme Court Seats Has Been Adjusted Before — Here'due south How It's Done
This call for a SCOTUS expansion has led many to wonder: Is such a move even possible? The brusque answer: aye. Congress could easily change the number of seats on the Supreme Court bench. According to the Supreme Court'south website, "The Constitution places the power to determine the number of Justices in the easily of Congress" — only some other example of those supposed checks and balances that guide a constitutional government. In fact, the number of Justices has shifted several times throughout the Courtroom's history. In 1789, the outset Judiciary Act set the number of Justices at vi; during the Civil State of war, the number of seats went upwardly to nine and then briefly 10; and, once President Andrew Johnson took office, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act in 1866, cutting the number of Justices to vii and so that Johnson couldn't stack the courtroom in favor of Southern states.
Since 1869, even so, the Supreme Courtroom has been composed of nine Justices. In semi-recent history, there'south been 1 notable attempt to aggrandize the Court — 1 that will live in infamy, and then to speak. Back in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt aimed to expand the Court, which kept shooting down some of his New Deal legislation. More specifically, FDR felt that many of the older Justices were out of impact with the times, so much so that they were colloquially dubbed the "nine old men."
FDR's proposal? Add together one Justice to the Supreme Court for every seventy-year-onetime Justice residing on the bench. That would've resulted in fifteen Supreme Court Justices, only fifty-fifty the Democrat-controlled Congress — and FDR'south ain Vice President — were against the idea. Since FDR's infamous defeat, no effort to expand or reduce the Supreme Court has gathered much steam — until now.
How Probable Is It That Democrats Volition Aggrandize the Supreme Court in 2021?
Interestingly enough, Political leader points out that President Biden has been outspoken almost not expanding the court. In 2019, President Biden even went as far as saying "nosotros'll live to rue that day [nosotros aggrandize the Court]," arguing that an expansion would atomic number 82 to constant changes — more expansions, more reductions. In short, it would shake the American people's faith in the legitimacy of the Supreme Courtroom (and potentially the Democratic party). Of course, that's just one scenario — and one that hasn't happened in the by. But, in the past, Vice President Kamala Harris has shown some back up for the idea, maxim she'd be "open" to it. All the same, both Vice President Harris and President Biden have besides dodged questions surrounding courtroom-packing and Supreme Court expansion.
On the other hand, more outspoken proponents have tried to gather momentum for the idea. Representative Ocasio-Cortez expanded upon her initial "Expand the Court" tweet, calling out Republicans' hypocrisy toward appointing new Justices during presidential election years. "Republicans exercise this considering they don't believe Dems have the stones to play hardball similar they do. And for a long fourth dimension they've been correct," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "But practise non let them peachy the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn't. At that place is a legal process for expansion."
In the confront of a 6–3 Conservative majority, folks similar Representative Ocasio-Cortez argue that the Supreme Court is out of balance — and, more than than that, it isn't quite reflective of the American people's concerns and values. So much lies in the hands of the court: the fate of the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade and matrimony equality, just to proper name a few. Now, nosotros'll just accept to see if this imbalance — and Barrett's speedy appointment — are enough to convince President Biden and members of Congress to seriously consider a Supreme Courtroom expansion.
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Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/ask-answers-expand-supreme-court?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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