Just when you thought that radical court “reform” had gone away, the Far Left insists on expanding the U.S. Supreme Court. They haven’t given up.
It seems they’ve simply changed strategy and are laying the groundwork to bring back the Supreme Court Coup should they regain political power.
“The political campaign for Court-packing may be in hiding, but its advocates are still out there shopping it for the next crop of Democratic politicians,” writes Dan McLaughlin at National Review.
For the past few years, court “reform” advocates have put forward proposals that would destroy judicial independence and the constitutional order. They poured millions of dollars trying to convince the public that these “reforms” would “fix” the Supreme Court.
Those include court-packing, ending life tenure for federal judges and giving Congress the power to oversee the Court’s ethics code. Some proposals would prevent the Court from hearing certain cases, effectively destroying the Court’s power of judicial review.
They also launched a wave of attacks against the Court’s conservative justices. They levied fabricated accusations against them, supposed “ethics” scandals aimed at making Americans hallucinate misconduct. This line of attack was aimed at smearing the credibility of the justices so they can also undermine the authority of the Court’s rulings. It’s clear what this is really about: destroying public trust in the Supreme Court.
During President Biden’s administration there was a major push to pack the Court, an effort that didn’t have anything to do with making our judicial system any better. It was all about grabbing more power and wresting control. After the 2024 election, that radical movement came to a halt, at least temporarily.
However, calls to “reform” the Supreme Court are still happening.
Should the next midterm or presidential elections go their way, the Far Left, politicians and some of the most radical groups in the country seem ready to bring these proposals back.
“Democrats who are dissatisfied with the past four years of the Supreme Court’s handiwork need to learn from their mistakes—to start building popular support for court reform now, so that they can act decisively if and when they are next in power,” declared Jay Willis, a writer for Slate Magazine. “Democratic politicians need to start laying the groundwork for court reform now, by making the case to voters that the current court poses an existential threat to everything they care about.”
New York Times contributing editor and author of the book The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, Osita Nwanevu, said in an interview that the Left-wing critique of the Supreme Court will be an ongoing conversation.
“My expectation is that all of these ideas are going to be part of the political conversation on the left and are going to be very influential in the next democratic administration,” Nwanevu said.
“If the Democrats win the presidency, the Senate, and the House in 2028…they may have to expand the court to 13 members,” political strategist James Carville said in a recent interview.
On the flipside, some senators are pushing to pass legislation that would protect the Supreme Court and our judicial system.
Sens. Todd Young and Ted Cruz are co-sponsoring the “Keep Nine” amendment. This bill proposes a constitutional amendment that would keep the Supreme Court at nine justices.
As First Liberty has explained, court-packing and other extreme court “reform” proposals would destroy judicial independence and the rule of law. They’re a threat to Americans’ civil liberties.
“Court packing would not simply alter the structure of the Supreme Court—it would convert it into a subsidiary of the other branches, destroying our constitutional order,” explained First Liberty Executive General Counsel Hiram Sasser in an op-ed for The Hill.
Just because the Supreme Court Coup is quelled for the time being, it doesn’t mean we can let our guard down. Radical court “reform” could make a comeback, possibly in the near future. Americans need to remain vigilant.
