By Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist. Media: Washington Examiner.
Calls to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices grew louder over the weekend when partisan Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) put out a new call to “expand, unstack, and reform” the highest court in the land.
In an email to supporters of his Senate campaign, Schiff said, “We must unpack the court by expanding the number of justices on the court, instituting term limits, and enacting a code of ethics like every other federal court.”
Liberal lawmakers have been upset with the court ever since President Donald Trump put three conservatives on it. Since then, there have been demands to retaliate by adding more justices to water down the GOP majority.
Most Americans, however, oppose court packing, and even President Joe Biden has been reluctant to join in the call. A survey from the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports a year ago found that 55% oppose adding more justices.
Expanding the size of the Supreme Court isn’t extreme or unprecedented — but the opinions of this Court certainly are.
— Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) June 30, 2023
Democrats, however, appear in favor. That survey, following the court’s decisions to end Roe v. Wade and expand gun rights, said that 64% of Democrats want to add four more justices to the nine on the bench today.
Schiff noted that he has been pushing for more justices since Roe was killed.
“I’ve spent years talking about the need to expand, unstack, and reform the Supreme Court after Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell stacked it with partisans. This week we saw firsthand the consequences of its imbalance,” he said in the email shared with Secrets.
Other liberals also attacked the court over the weekend, notably Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).
On MSNBC, for example, Pressley said, “I think everything should be on the table.” On adding more judges, she argued that the court “has been emboldened in rolling back the hands of time, undermining and rolling back what should be fundamental civil human rights. So everything should be on the table: reform and expansion.”
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