BIDEN WEIGHS SUPREME COURT OVERHAUL
Says he would tap commission to propose changes
Joe Biden said Thursday he would name a bipartisan commission to propose an overhaul of the Supreme Court and federal judiciary because the current system is “getting out of whack,” following weeks of pressure to endorse or reject a push by liberals to expand the court.
Biden has repeatedly avoided saying directly whether he would accept a court expansion plan promoted by Democrats angry at Republicans’ speedy confirmation process for Amy Coney Barrett, who is expected to be approved by the full Senate within days.
Thursday’s comments to CBS’s “60 Minutes” were Biden’s fullest response on the subject.
He reiterated that he does not love the idea of simply adding justices, should he be elected and Democrats retake the Senate, and filling those slots with liberals.
“The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football, whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want,” Biden said in excerpts of the “60 Minutes” interview, set to be broadcast in full on Sunday. “Presidents come and go. Supreme Court justices stay for generations.”
Rather, he suggested, he wants broader changes that would incorporate the views of conservative political leaders and legal scholars. Such experts have proposed everything from term limits for justices to rotating them on and off the court to imposing a rough ideological balance to guaranteeing each president at least two nominations.
“It’s not about courtpacking,” Biden said. “There’s a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated, and I’ve looked to see what recommendations that commission might make.”
Biden’s comments, and the political pressures that prompted them, ref lect how the death of liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the GOP response to it, has thrust a largely academic debate into the forefront of the presidential campaign, potentially setting up a major issue for the first months of a prospective Biden presidency.
Democrats are angry that Republicans are pushing through Barrett’s confirmation while voting is already under way in the presidential race, with a final Senate vote expected roughly a week before Election Day. That comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blocked former President Barack Obama’s last Supreme Court appointment — nine months before the 2016 election — on the grounds that it was too close to Election Day.
The commission proposal is also a fresh example of Biden’s political style, particularly his tendency to respond to pressure from the activist left without going as far as it wants. Some liberal groups want a Democratic Congress to add as many as four seats to the court and have Biden fill them all, creating an instant liberal majority.
Instead, Biden said the commission would have 180 days to come up with proposals, potentially giving his administration a window to determine whether a new era of bipartisanship is possible.
The liberal group Demand Justice called his proposal a “punt.”
“We certainly do not need a commission to tell us that Republicans are on the verge of stealing their second Supreme Court seat in four years and that the [Chief Justice John] Roberts Court routinely sides with voter suppression schemes that advantage the Republican Party,” said Brian Fallon, the group’s executive director. “This proposed commission runs the risk of stalling momentum for serious reform.”
But there is no clear consensus among Democrats on changes to the high court, with some favoring term limits and others even proposing lottery-type systems to select justices from a larger pool of federally appointed judges.
What is clear is that liberals are focusing on the federal judiciary in a new way, following years in which the issue was more important to conservatives. That’s largely because President Donald Trump, with help from McConnell, has installed numerous young, highly conservative judges, including two Supreme Court justices and potentially a third.
Now, Democrats fear they may capture the White House and both chambers of Congress, only to see the courts throw out or restrict any liberal legislation and impose limits on voting that will help Republicans.