Pelosi says she has ‘no plans’ to bring bill to expand Supreme Court to House floor
Democratic congressional leaders are rejecting a liberal push to expand the Supreme Court, dealing a blow to progressives in the latest sign that party leaders are attempting to tread cautiously on the highly controversial issue.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear Thursday that she does not currently support a bill pushed by some Democrats to expand the court and does not intend to bring it to the House floor for a vote.
“No,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference when asked if she supports the bill and if she would commit to bringing it to the floor, though she did say she believes “it’s an idea that should be considered,” and said “it’s not out of the question.”
15 Apr 2021
Thursday on FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” network legal analyst Jonathan Turley weighed in on the Democrats’ push to pack the U.S. Supreme Court. Democrats will reportedly announce a bill Thursday to pack the court by expanding the number of justices from nine to 13.
Turley, noting that President Joe Biden and some liberal “icons” like former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg have been against court-packing in the past, said the move is a “hostile takeover of the court.”
“This is about as subtle as a B-52 run,” Turley declared. “I mean, it is an astonishing act. It dispenses with any pretense of principle to say raw muscle play. It’s like a hostile takeover of the court. And I don’t really understand the political logic here, but what really concerns me is that this is really a test of principle for Democratic members. I will be watching today to see what senators, what House members step forward and say this is wrong. This is raw court-packi
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President Joe Biden, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Justice Stephen Breyer have all questioned the wisdom of packing the Supreme Court.
The views expressed by the Democratic president, and two justices appointed by past Democratic presidents, are increasingly relevant as liberal activists seek to expand the number of Supreme Court seats from nine to 13, presumably filling the four new seats with ideologically friendly justices.
Biden in 1983 called such a move boneheaded. Ginsburg warned that it was a bad idea when former President Franklin Roosevelt tried, and failed, in 1937 to expand the Supreme Court and add favorable judges.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Democrats introducing a bill to pack the Supreme Court.
A push by progressive congressional Democrats to expand the number of Supreme Court justices – a long shot to pass in Congress – doesn’t appear to be supported by most Americans.
While there’s no new public opinion polling on what’s called court packing by opponents and court expansion by proponents, there were a couple of national surveys conducted last autumn, during the heat of the presidential general election campaign.
That’s when the issue was last in the headlines, following the death of liberal leaning Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the successful controversial push by then-President Trump and the then-Senate GOP majority to quickly confirm conservative leaning federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacant high court seat. Barrett’s confirmation – over the objections of Democrats – further entrenched the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
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