Rolling the Dice on Chaos, Supreme Court Ducks Election-Law Cases

Court-packing threats by the Left have intimidated moderate, politically minded justices.

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Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts departs the Trump impeachment trial in Washington, January 29, 2020.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

There’s one thing we’ve forgotten to mention about political intimidation of the Supreme Court. It works.

On the right, and among those who respect history, tradition, and stability, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Court-packing gambit is remembered as a welcome rejection of radicalism: At the pinnacle of his influence, the most powerful president of the 20th century could not prevail on his scheme to expand the Court and fill it with like-minded, politically willful progressives, even though his party controlled both houses of Congress by decisive margins.

Andrew C. McCarthy

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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