Panel on court preps its report

Term limits among its topics

WASHINGTON — The bipartisan commission of legal experts appointed by President Joe Biden to study potential changes to the structure of the U.S. Supreme Court will meet today to vote on a final report that flags deep disputes over expanding the number of justices while also exploring how phasing in term limits might work.

The commission released a draft version of its final report Monday evening and is set to meet today to discuss and vote on whether to approve sending it to Biden. That meeting is expected to be streamed live on the White House website.

It remains to be seen whether the commission, which is ideologically diverse, will embrace the report unanimously. But rather than making specific policy recommendations, the report seeks to promote a debate over possible changes to the court, including by describing in detail arguments for and against various ideas.

While the draft report covers many topics, the one that has received the most attention is expanding — or “packing” — the Supreme Court by adding justices to it.

The commission’s existence dates back to demands by some liberals last year that Democrats embrace that idea to ideologically rebalance the court after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a key member of its liberal wing, died in September 2020. Republicans rushed to confirm a conservative replacement, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, before the presidential election several weeks later.

The chapter on court expansion describes arguments for and against it, while emphasizing that its own members had sharply diverging views on the idea.

“The commission takes no position on the validity or strength of these claims,” the report’s executive summary says. “Mirroring the broader public debate, there is profound disagreement among commissioners on these issues. We present the arguments in order to fulfill our charge to provide a complete account of the contemporary court reform debate.”

The report’s chapter on term limits — an idea that has received some bipartisan support — also describes arguments for and against. But it also goes into detail on various ways that such a change could be achieved, including how to transition from the current system of life tenure and various challenges.