Dem backs ‘pack’

High-court plan

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Sunday that he would be open to packing the Supreme Court with more justices if Joe Biden is elected president.

Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether his “mind is open” to expanding the number of justices on the high court to counterbalance the potential addition of conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the bench, the Delaware lawmaker said “yes.”

Coons (inset) compared his position on the matter to that of Biden, who has refused to be drawn in on the issue and has said only that he would announce his stance before the election.

“Like Joe Biden, I’m not a fan of expanding the court, but we have a few weeks here to see whether there are four Republicans who will step back from this precipice,” Coons said, referring to efforts to confirm Barrett to the court before the presidential election.

“It is the Republican majority that’s responsible for racing forward with this extreme, unqualified nominee, unqualified because of her extreme judicial philosophy.”

He argued that Barrett’s confirmation was being rushed so President Trump and Republicans could “overturn the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a pandemic.”

Republicans are “doing this to get someone on the court just in time, a week after the election, to take away critical health-care protections from a majority of Americans,” Coons said.

“We need to focus on that. And then if we happen to be in the fact pattern where we have a President Biden, we’ll have to look at what the right steps are to rebalance our federal judiciary.”