Law School Dean at Berkeley Thinks Democrats Would be Justified in Packing Supreme Court
“should increase the number of justices from nine to thirteen”
If Democrats pack the court, what’s to stop Republicans from doing it? Before you know it, we’ll have fifty judges on the Supreme Court.
Campus Reform reports:
Berkeley law school dean: Democrats would be ‘justified’ in packing the Supreme Court
The University of California-Berkeley law school dean wrote an op-ed in which he advocated for additional judges to be added to the Supreme Court, while several other professors want to repeal Article II of the Constitution that would allow immigrants not born in the U.S. to become president.
Dean and Professor of Law at UC Berkeley Erwin Chemerinsky wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times advocating for Democrats to expand the size of the Supreme Court, a concept referred to as “pack the court,” if they take back control of the White House and Senate on November 3.
Chemerinsky explained in his op-ed why the U.S. should increase the number of justices from nine to thirteen. Chemerinsky discussed how there isn’t much that Democrats can do if President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Ginsburg, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, is confirmed.
“One way for Democrats to make clear they will not tolerate Republicans trying to fill this seat in advance of the election would be for them to pledge that, if they take the White House and Senate in November, they will increase the size of the Supreme Court to 13 justices,” Chemerinsky wrote. He went on to point out that the number of justices isn’t in the Constitution, but is rather determined by law.
The idea of packing the court first came up in 1936 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to help pass a piece of legislation.
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Comments
One way for Democrats to make clear they will not tolerate Republicans trying to fill this seat in advance of the election would be for them to pledge that, if they take the White House and Senate in November, they will increase the size of the Supreme Court to 13 justices
These two aren’t connected in any way. If the D’rats want to pack the court and are ever in a position to do so, they could do it no matter what the Republicans did at some earlier date.
In other words, even if they get their way now, they could still pervert SCOTUS later.
And citizens would shortly thereafter become justified in ignoring Supreme Court rulings.
If Trump wins re-election, can he add 4 more people to the Supreme Court?
Trump can nominate them today. And should.
We will know for sure that the Democrats intend to add Justices if they totally boycott the ACB hearings. That will be the biggest tell, because it lays the political groundwork for adding 2 Justices next year.
Boycotting the hearings also has another benefit for Democrats – it avoids the possibility that Kamala Harris will get angry and say something to ACB that will damage her presidential campaign.