An Order by the Supreme Court Directing a Lower Court to Send Up a Case for Review
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed abroad on September 18, 2020, many Americans didn't take the proper time to grieve — instead, they panicked virtually what her passing meant for the future of the country. Holding the residual of an unabridged democracy is too nifty a burden for anyone'south shoulders, and Justice Ginsburg had been carrying that weight for a long, long time. Instead of holding space for her passing, Republican politicians wasted no time in queuing upward a nominee for the empty Supreme Court seat, eventually landing on Amy Coney Barrett — a longtime Notre Matriarch Law Schoolhouse professor who served fewer than three years on the Seventh Excursion before her nomination to the highest court in the American judicial organization.
In 2016, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell infamously vowed to cake President Obama'due south approachable Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland on the grounds that the American people should have a "voice" and that to rush a nomination (and confirmation) would be to overly politicize the issue. In 2020, however, McConnell didn't hold to those principles he outlined 4 years before, leading to Barrett's confirmation hearings and equally rushed swearing in ceremony, which took place about a week before Election Day on October 26, 2020.
This move led many to criticize McConnell, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC), who merely tweeted, "Expand the courtroom." Additionally, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (@EdMarkey), who is Ocasio-Cortez'southward Green New Deal co-author, tweeted, "Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates information technology, when Democrats command the Senate in the next Congress, we must cancel the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court."
The Number of Supreme Court Seats Has Been Adjusted Earlier — Here's How It's Done
This telephone call for a SCOTUS expansion has led many to wonder: Is such a move fifty-fifty possible? The short answer: yeah. Congress could easily change the number of seats on the Supreme Court bench. According to the Supreme Courtroom's website, "The Constitution places the power to determine the number of Justices in the hands of Congress" — just another case of those supposed checks and balances that guide a constitutional authorities. In fact, the number of Justices has shifted several times throughout the Court's history. In 1789, the beginning Judiciary Deed set the number of Justices at six; during the Civil War, the number of seats went up to ix and and so briefly 10; and, once President Andrew Johnson took office, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Human activity in 1866, cutting the number of Justices to seven so that Johnson couldn't stack the courtroom in favor of Southern states.
Since 1869, however, the Supreme Court has been composed of nine Justices. In semi-contempo history, there'southward been one notable attempt to expand the Court — i that volition alive in infamy, so to speak. Back in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt aimed to aggrandize the Court, which kept shooting down some of his New Deal legislation. More specifically, FDR felt that many of the older Justices were out of touch with the times, so much and then that they were colloquially dubbed the "nine old men."
FDR's proposal? Add ane Justice to the Supreme Court for every 70-year-old Justice residing on the bench. That would've resulted in 15 Supreme Court Justices, only even the Democrat-controlled Congress — and FDR's own Vice President — were against the thought. Since FDR's infamous defeat, no effort to expand or reduce the Supreme Court has gathered much steam — until at present.
How Likely Is Information technology That Democrats Will Expand the Supreme Courtroom in 2021?
Interestingly enough, Politico points out that President Biden has been outspoken almost not expanding the court. In 2019, President Biden even went as far as saying "we'll alive to rue that twenty-four hours [we expand the Courtroom]," arguing that an expansion would lead to constant changes — more expansions, more than reductions. In short, it would shake the American people'southward organized religion in the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (and potentially the Democratic political party). Of grade, that'south just one scenario — and ane that hasn't happened in the by. Only, in the by, Vice President Kamala Harris has shown some support for the idea, saying she'd be "open" to it. However, both Vice President Harris and President Biden accept also dodged questions surrounding court-packing and Supreme Court expansion.
On the other hand, more outspoken proponents have tried to assemble momentum for the thought. Representative Ocasio-Cortez expanded upon her initial "Expand the Court" tweet, calling out Republicans' hypocrisy toward appointing new Justices during presidential ballot years. "Republicans practice this because they don't believe Dems accept the stones to play hardball like they do. And for a long time they've been correct," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "But do not let them groovy the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn't. There is a legal procedure for expansion."
In the face up of a half-dozen–three Conservative majority, folks like Representative Ocasio-Cortez argue that the Supreme Courtroom is out of residual — and, more than that, it isn't quite reflective of the American people's concerns and values. So much lies in the hands of the court: the fate of the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade and marriage equality, just to name a few. Now, nosotros'll merely have to see if this imbalance — and Barrett'south speedy appointment — are enough to convince President Biden and members of Congress to seriously consider a Supreme Court expansion.
Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/ask-answers-expand-supreme-court?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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