‘Court-pack’ commission
President Biden on Friday signed an executive order that creates a commission to study adding seats to the Supreme Court.
Many Democrats want to expand the number of justices after President Donald Trump successfully nominated three justices, tilting the court in a more conservative direction.
The commission will be “comprised of a bipartisan group of experts on the court and the court reform debate,” the White House said in a release.
But Republicans and legal purists decry the idea as “courtpacking” and say it will undo the Supreme Court’s historical insulation from politics. Biden previously opposed adding seats.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday the commission will review “the pros and cons” of expanding the court beyond nine members. Psaki said it also will consider “the length of service and turnover” of justices and “the court’s case-selection rules and practices.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt unsuccessfully sought to pack the court in the 1930s after conservative justices ruled against some of his New Deal policies.
A reporter reminded Psaki that Biden said in 1983 that court packing was a “bonehead idea” when FDR attempted it because it undermined the court’s independence.
Psaki joked about the age of that remark, saying, “Whoa, timeback machine!”
The commission will hold public meetings and issue a report within 180 days of its first meeting, the White House said.
The commission will be cochaired by NYU Law professor Bob Bauer, who worked as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, and Yale Law School professor Cristina Rodriguez, an Obama Justice Department and Biden transition alum.
The White House named 34 commissioners in addition to the co-chairs.