Court-Packing: Democrats’ Plan a Power-Grab

One of the most radical banana-republic ideas floated during the 2020 presidential campaign was Democrats pushing Court-packing: expanding the size of the Supreme Court in order to change the outcomes of the Court’s decisions in their favor. This would, as I wrote repeatedly in 2019 and 2020, be by far more dangerous to the rule of written law than anything either party has done or proposed in recent memory. It is also hugely unpopular. Last week, Joe Biden announced a presidential commission to study the issue, signaling his continuing openness to what he once described as a corrupt power grab. Now, today, Democrats have introduced proposed legislation to add four more justices to the Court.

The Democrats’ bill, designated the “Judiciary Act of 2021,” is not simply the work of a few radical backbenchers. It is sponsored in the House by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (Jerrold Nadler) and the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet (Hank Johnson). In the Senate, it is sponsored by Ed Markey, a 45-year veteran of Congress who is dean of Massachusetts’s congressional delegation and was a longtime committee chairman in the House. The press release announcing the bill contains statements of support from a flotilla of left-wing legal organizations.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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One of the most radical banana-republic ideas floated during the 2020 presidential campaign was Democrats pushing Court-packing: expanding the size of the Supreme Court in order to change the outcomes of the Court’s decisions in their favor. This would, as I wrote repeatedly in 2019 and 2020, be by far more dangerous to the rule of written law than anything either party has done or proposed in recent memory. It is also hugely unpopular. Last week, Joe Biden announced a presidential commission to study the issue, signaling his continuing openness to what he once described as a corrupt power grab. Now, today, Democrats have introduced proposed legislation to add four more justices to the Court.

The Democrats’ bill, designated the “Judiciary Act of 2021,” is not simply the work of a few radical backbenchers. It is sponsored in the House by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (Jerrold Nadler) and the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet (Hank Johnson). In the Senate, it is sponsored by Ed Markey, a 45-year veteran of Congress who is dean of Massachusetts’s congressional delegation and was a longtime committee chairman in the House. The press release announcing the bill contains statements of support from a flotilla of left-wing legal organizations.