Democrats Take First Steps to Pack the U.S. Supreme Court; Justice Breyer Warns it’s a Bad Idea

Written by Liberty McArtor

America moved closer to a 180-degree shift last week when President Joe Biden established the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. And now, the treacherous idea of court-packing is closer to becoming reality, as Democrats filed a bill this week to add four (4) seats to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In examining “reforms” to the U.S. Supreme Court, the major issue the commission will examine is court-packing—put simply, increasing the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. If court-packing succeeds, it would completely change America’s judiciary system and threaten the future of our most fundamental freedoms.

Commission Quick Facts: What it is and Who’s in Charge

What: The commission’s purpose is “to provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against U.S. Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals.”

Topics for examination include:

• “The genesis of the reform debate.”
• “The Court’s role in the Constitutional system.”
• “The length of service and turnover of justices on the Court.”
• “The membership and size of the Court.”
• “The Court’s case selection, rules, and practices.”

Who: The commission is comprised of thirty-six (36) members, each hand-picked by the president.

Commission co-chairs are Bob Bauer and Cristina Rodríguez. Bauer is a former White House Counsel for the Obama administration, and Rodríguez is a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department under the Obama administration.

180 Day Deadline, 180 Degree Shift

According to the executive order, the commission has 180 days to research the topics listed above, solicit public comment, and provide its report to the president. However, changes to the U.S. Supreme Court and the judiciary could take place even before the commission has made recommendations, given the Democrats’ recently filed bill to increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court to thirteen (13) justices.

Depending on what the commission recommends—and what changes are actually implemented—Americans could see a 180-degree shift in the direction of our country, a change that could take us straight down the road to chaos, tyranny and the erosion of our constitutional rights.

Packing the U.S. Supreme Court with a stack of liberal justices is the most dangerous and pressing threat. Adding justices who are politically motivated would disfigure the judiciary system, destroy its independence and turn the U.S. Supreme Court—and all the federal courts, for that matter—into an extension of whatever the ruling political party happens to be.

The commission will also analyze life tenure, which America’s federal judges enjoy under current law.

What about the commission’s research into altering “the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices?” That’s a nice way of saying that the president and Congress could get a lot more involved in the U.S. Supreme Court—for instance, by influencing what cases the Court could and couldn’t hear. Again, this would destroy the Court’s ability to operate as an independent entity free of political influence.

Justice Stephen Breyer: A Surprising Voice of Reason

Just one day before Pres. Biden announced the commission, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer gave a speech at Harvard Law School issuing a stern warning about court-packing:

“If the public sees judges as politicians in robes, its confidence in the courts—and the rule of law itself—can only diminish, diminishing the court’s power, including its power to act as a check on other branches.”

Justice Breyer went on to say those supporting court-packing and other “structural change” should “think long and hard before they embody those changes in law.”

His statements echo those of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, another voice on the bench who spoke against court-packing shortly before her death:

“If anything would make the court look partisan, it would be that—one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.’”

No Time to Waste

Now that President Biden has officially created the commission and Democrats filed their court expansion bill, the clock is ticking to educate all Americans and expose this for what it really is: a blatant power grab to overthrow the U.S. Supreme Court.

It’s vital to get the word out about the dangers of court-packing while we can, because if it succeeds, our most foundational constitutional rights—including religious freedom—will no longer be safe.

This article was originally published by FirstLiberty.org.