'Don't Believe The Defeatists Who Worry About Expanding The Supreme Court'
'Don't Believe The Defeatists Who Worry About Expanding the Court.' Daily Kos, Sept. 21, 2020.
Democrats, as one of their first acts with the trifecta under Biden, should expand the SCOTUS and the federal appeals courts to 13 members. Given the backlog of cases and increased population, an argument could be made that this needs to happen in general. In order to protect progressive legislation and our rights, especially given the increasingly fascist tilt of Republicans at all levels. Once again, Democrats are going to be the reason we can’t have nice things. Problem is, in this case, its a Democracy. The defeatists, which encompass large swaths of the Democratic infrastructure, will have you believe that if we expand the court all of these things will happen:
1) The backlash will be severe from the electorate, and it will doom the Democrats in 2022 midterms.
This is nonsense. Note the Garland maneuver sure didn’t hurt the Republicans in 2018. Polls show 60+% of voters want the winner of the election to appoint the next justice.
So once again, Dems have majorities on their side.
2) Republicans will simply expand the court to 15, 17, 21, whatever, as soon as they have the power to do so, leading to an endless expansion.
Let’s examine what’s really going on here.
- House will be in Democratic hands for foreseeable future. Democrats have a large House majority 232 — 198. It is likely that we increase this by a few in 2020 (for our purposes, Biden wins which is why we are discussing this topic). Conservatively, we increase that to 237-198. In 2022, we will be revising House districts, and given the increase in Democratic Governors, its very likely we successfully regain 5-10 seats in key states and protecting potentially vulnerable incumbents. This is also likely to result in Dems having a majority of house delegations, perhaps assisting in another close election.
So the likelihood Republicans have the trifecta in 2024 or 2028 is extremely unlikely. Meaning that whatever court reform we initiate is likely to be good until at least 2032. Buying 12 years of protection from the Republican party slide toward fascism seems worth the risk. It will be at least 12 years, if not longer, before Republicans are able to expand the court.
- It is likely the Court will be Conservative Majority for the foreseeable future. Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh aren’t going anywhere for the next decade. Maybe Thomas retires if Republicans win in 2024. But even if Thomas had to leave the court, it does us almost no good. So if we do nothing, best case scenario, in the late 2020s, we will get some sort of 5-4 conservative majority. You tell me, given the dishonesty of the Rs in the Senate, how we ever recover from this? It took Democrats winning the Presidency for 32 / 40 years to recover from the majorities that fought FDR and the New Deal.
- The American People are On Our Side...
More, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/21/1979334/-Don-t-Believe-The-Defeatists-Who-Worry-About-Expanding-the-Court
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*Select Comments*,
Even if the Dems win a majority in the Senate, and end the filibuster for legislation, I don’t think there will be 50 Dem Senators who will vote for packing the Supreme Court.
Sep 21, 2020 at 02:38:58 PM
You may be right about the lack of enough Senators willing to expand the Supreme Court. But that can be changed by constituents pressuring recalcitrant Senators and Representatives. I have already asked mine to support increasing the size of the Court during the 117th Congress. Whether the new size should be 11 or 13 depends on what happens over the next three months.
I advise all DKos readers to ask their Senators and Representative to increase the size of the Supreme Court in the 117th Congress (the current Congress is the 116th). Contact information: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact
https://www.house.gov/representatives
Sep 21, 2020 at 02:43:56 PM
I’ll write mine and tell them I don’t support court packing.
Sep 21, 2020 at 02:51:02 PM
Then you support fascism.
Sep 21, 2020 at 02:19:48 PM
This is completely correct. Let’s just add in the other players in the way here-...
Sep 21, 2020 at 02:29:04 PM
Working class americans are suffering, especially workers of color and the disabled. Its not exaggeration to say that millions of lives depend upon what the democrats do in the next 2 years. Its time for the democratic party to deliver. No more “bipartisanship” or dragging our feet. Help the people who vote for you, or we will vote for someone else...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/21/1979334/-Don-t-Believe-The-Defeatists-Who-Worry-About-Expanding-the-Court
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