The Supreme Court Is More Likely to Consider Reviewing a Case if Answerscom
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September xviii, 2020, many Americans didn't accept the proper time to grieve — instead, they panicked nearly what her passing meant for the hereafter of the state. Holding the balance of an unabridged republic is likewise great a burden for anyone's shoulders, and Justice Ginsburg had been carrying that weight for a long, long time. Instead of belongings infinite for her passing, Republican politicians wasted no time in queuing up a nominee for the empty Supreme Court seat, somewhen landing on Amy Coney Barrett — a longtime Notre Dame Law School professor who served fewer than three years on the Seventh Circuit before her nomination to the highest court in the American judicial organisation.
In 2016, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell infamously vowed to block President Obama'due south outgoing Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland on the grounds that the American people should have a "vox" and that to blitz a nomination (and confirmation) would be to overly politicize the issue. In 2020, still, McConnell didn't concur to those principles he outlined four years earlier, leading to Barrett's confirmation hearings and equally rushed swearing in ceremony, which took place about a week before Election Mean solar day on Oct 26, 2020.
This motility led many to criticize McConnell, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC), who merely tweeted, "Expand the court." Additionally, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (@EdMarkey), who is Ocasio-Cortez'south Green New Deal co-writer, tweeted, "Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an ballot year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, nosotros must abolish the delay and expand the Supreme Court."
The Number of Supreme Court Seats Has Been Adjusted Earlier — Here'southward How It'south Done
This call for a SCOTUS expansion has led many to wonder: Is such a motion fifty-fifty possible? The brusque answer: yes. Congress could easily change the number of seats on the Supreme Courtroom demote. Co-ordinate to the Supreme Court'southward website, "The Constitution places the power to make up one's mind the number of Justices in the hands of Congress" — merely another case of those supposed checks and balances that guide a constitutional government. In fact, the number of Justices has shifted several times throughout the Court'due south history. In 1789, the first Judiciary Deed set the number of Justices at six; during the Civil State of war, the number of seats went up to nine and then briefly 10; and, once President Andrew Johnson took part, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act in 1866, cutting the number of Justices to seven and so that Johnson couldn't stack the court in favor of Southern states.
Since 1869, nevertheless, the Supreme Courtroom has been composed of nine Justices. In semi-recent history, there's been one notable attempt to expand the Court — one that will live in infamy, so to speak. Back in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt aimed to expand the Court, which kept shooting down some of his New Bargain legislation. More specifically, FDR felt that many of the older Justices were out of touch with the times, so much and so that they were colloquially dubbed the "nine old men."
FDR's proposal? Add one Justice to the Supreme Court for every lxx-year-onetime Justice residing on the bench. That would've resulted in 15 Supreme Court Justices, but even the Democrat-controlled Congress — and FDR's ain Vice President — were against the idea. Since FDR's infamous defeat, no try to aggrandize or reduce the Supreme Court has gathered much steam — until now.
How Probable Is It That Democrats Will Expand the Supreme Courtroom in 2021?
Interestingly enough, Pol points out that President Biden has been outspoken about not expanding the court. In 2019, President Biden fifty-fifty went as far as saying "nosotros'll live to rue that day [we expand the Court]," arguing that an expansion would atomic number 82 to constant changes — more expansions, more than reductions. In short, it would milk shake the American people'south organized religion in the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (and potentially the Democratic political party). Of course, that'due south just one scenario — and ane that hasn't happened in the past. But, in the past, Vice President Kamala Harris has shown some support for the thought, proverb she'd be "open" to it. All the same, both Vice President Harris and President Biden have besides dodged questions surrounding court-packing and Supreme Courtroom expansion.
On the other hand, more outspoken proponents have tried to gather momentum for the idea. Representative Ocasio-Cortez expanded upon her initial "Expand the Court" tweet, calling out Republicans' hypocrisy toward appointing new Justices during presidential election years. "Republicans exercise this considering they don't believe Dems have the stones to play hardball like they exercise. And for a long fourth dimension they've been correct," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "Merely practise not let them peachy the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal just a response isn't. In that location is a legal process for expansion."
In the face of a 6–three Conservative bulk, folks like Representative Ocasio-Cortez contend that the Supreme Court is out of balance — and, more than that, information technology isn't quite reflective of the American people's concerns and values. So much lies in the hands of the courtroom: the fate of the Affordable Care Deed, Roe v. Wade and marriage equality, just to name a few. Now, nosotros'll just accept to see if this imbalance — and Barrett's speedy date — 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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