Biden said he was against court-packing 40 years ago but now the former VP won t give stance on the issue.
President Biden’s one-time opposition to the concept of court-packing could soon be put to the test as top Democrats introduce legislation to expand the Supreme Court.
Congressional Democrats led by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and House Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) will detail their plan to expand the Supreme Court by four justices at a press conference on Thursday. The announcement will come just days after Biden signed an executive order establishing a commission to study a potential expansion.
At the time, that would have meant that FDR could appoint six more justices. For a president seeking favorable court rulings on massive federal programs, the bill’s passage would have marked a major windfall.
Roosevelt’s plan was widely panned by both parties and drew little support in Congress. At the same time, the Supreme Court issued several favorable rulings on FDR-backed proposals, including the National Labor Relations Act and the Social Security Act.
FDR’s court-packing bill was eventually brought to a vote, which failed 70-22 in the Senate. By Roosevelt’s third term in office, he had appointed seven of the nine active Supreme Court justices.
On today’s episode of ‘Fox News @ Night’, Shannon Bream tracks Democrats announcing legislation to expand the number of Supreme Court Justices; plus, the fourth night of unrest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.
House and Senate Democrats are poised to introduce legislation to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court so President Biden can add several of his own picks a practice known as court-packing but the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once firmly came out against the idea.
In a 2019 interview with NPR, Ginsburg addressed the idea that has gained momentum among Democrats in recent years.
Democratic lawmakers propose expanding Supreme Court to 13 justices kticradio.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kticradio.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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President Joe Biden’s commission to study packing the Supreme Court is the product of a power-hungry president. At least, that is according to Biden himself.
Biden refused to answer during the campaign if he would support packing the Supreme Court, as Democrats threw a temper tantrum over the confirmation of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Biden instead promised a commission, which was announced on Friday, and it is full of liberals who support packing the high court.
Biden’s inability to rule out the obvious power grab is made more glaring by the fact that Biden has noted that it is a power grab. In 2005, he said former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was “corrupted by power” when he pursued packing the Supreme Court in 1937. He praised those Senate Democrats who reprimanded Roosevelt and said they argued that “executive branch attempts to dominate the judiciary lead inevitably to autocratic dominance.”