Supreme Court Revewing Part of Statute Allows for Review of Statute Again Later
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September xviii, 2020, many Americans didn't accept the time to grieve her fully. Instead, the question everyone was request was, "What happens at present?" While the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is meant to exist an impartial institution that interprets the Constitution, at that place's no denying that the Justices' readings follow a pattern — some are more conservative in their approach, while others are more liberal.
That said, many Americans viewed Ginsburg'south passing as the moment when the Supreme Court's frail residue shifted. In 2016, then-Senate Bulk Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to block President Obama's approachable Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland on the grounds that the American people should have a "vocalization" and that rushing a nomination (and confirmation) would overly politicize the issue.
Donald Trump's presidency resulted in not 1, but three lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court. Before Ginsburg passed, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were added to the bench, which, in plow, tasked Ginsburg with carrying an immense weight. If she retired, Trump would go to nominate another Justice; any president, regardless of party affiliation, nominating nigh half of the Supreme Court's members creates a kind of slant or imbalance.
When Ginsburg passed abroad but two months before the 2020 presidential election, McConnell didn't agree to the principles he'd outlined four years earlier. Instead, Amy Coney Barrett — a longtime Notre Dame Constabulary School professor who served fewer than iii years on the 7th Excursion — was sworn in, replacing Ginsburg just a week before Election Day.
And that brings u.s. to the idea of expanding the Supreme Court. The notion isn't at all new, but information technology certainly had a surge of popularity two years agone. Now, with SCOTUS positioned to potentially overturn the conclusion made in Roe five. Wade, many Americans are wondering about the history of expanding the Supreme Court — and if the judicial branch needs to be reevaluated in 2022.
Has the Number of Supreme Court Seats Been Adjusted Before?
The speedy confirmation of Justice Barrett led many to criticize McConnell. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY; @AOC) simply tweeted, "Expand the court." Additionally, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA; @EdMarkey), who is Ocasio-Cortez'southward Dark-green New Deal co-writer, tweeted, "Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Courtroom vacancies filled in an election yr. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the adjacent Congress, nosotros must abolish the filibuster and aggrandize the Supreme Court."
This call for a SCOTUS expansion has many Americans wondering: Is such a move fifty-fifty possible? The curt reply is "aye." Congress could easily modify the number of seats on the Supreme Court bench. According to the Supreme Court'due south website, "The Constitution places the power to decide the number of Justices in the easily of Congress" — merely another example of those supposed checks and balances that guide a ramble government.
That said, the number of Justices has shifted several times throughout the Court's history. In 1789, the outset Judiciary Deed set the number of Justices at six; during the Civil State of war, the number of seats went upwardly to 9 and then briefly 10; and, once President Andrew Johnson took function, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act in 1866, cutting the number of Justices to seven and then Johnson couldn't stack the Court in favor of Southern states.
Since 1869, nonetheless, the Supreme Court has been composed of nine Justices. In semi-recent history, there'due south been one notable attempt to expand the Court — 1 that volition live in infamy, so to speak. Back in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) aimed to expand 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 so that they were colloquially dubbed the "9 onetime men."
FDR's proposal? Add together one Justice to the Supreme Court for every seventy-year-old Justice residing on the demote. That would've resulted in 15 Supreme Courtroom Justices, merely even the Democrat-controlled Congress and FDR's ain vice president were against the thought. Since FDR's infamous defeat, no attempt to expand or reduce the Supreme Court has gathered much steam — until now.
Political leader points out that President Biden has been outspoken virtually not expanding the court. In 2019, he even went every bit far equally proverb, "we'll alive to rue that day [we expand the Courtroom]," arguing that an expansion would lead to constant changes — more expansions, more than reductions. In short, information technology would shake the American people'south religion in the legitimacy of the Supreme Courtroom (and, potentially, the Democratic party). Of course, that's merely ane scenario — 1 that hasn't happened in the past.
While on the entrada trail, Vice President Kamala Harris showed some support for the idea, saying she'd exist "open" to information technology. However, both Vice President Harris and President Biden have also dodged questions surrounding court-packing and Supreme Court expansion.
More than outspoken proponents have tried to gather momentum for the idea. Representative Ocasio-Cortez expanded upon her initial "Expand the Courtroom" tweet, calling out Republicans' hypocrisy toward appointing new Justices during presidential election years. "Republicans do this considering they don't believe Dems have the stones to play hardball similar they practise. And for a long time they've been correct," she tweeted. "But exercise non allow them bully the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal, but a response isn't. In that location is a legal procedure for expansion."
In the face of a 6–iii bourgeois majority, Americans like Representative Ocasio-Cortez debate that the Supreme Court is out of residue. More than than that, the Court may not be reflective of the American people's concerns and values, harkening back to FDR's "9 one-time men" trouble.
As we've seen in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson draft opinion leak, and then much lies in the hands of the Court. If the draft opinion remains as-is, the Dobbs determination volition, in plough, lead to overturning the landmark decision the Court fabricated in Roe v. Wade. Not only will this pb to abortion bans and restrict healthcare fifty-fifty farther, just it could also create a domino event.
The Roe conclusion, which hinges on the Ramble right to privacy, is not dissimilar from other Court-protected rights, ranging from the right to contraception to wedlock equality. While President Biden is concerned that expanding the Supreme Courtroom could pb to questions of its legitimacy, undoing decades-old precedents, like Roe, may as well undermine the Court'south validity and authority.
All of this to say, an imbalance in the Supreme Court, regardless of said leaning, weakens our republic. For at present, we'll have to wait and see if any looming decisions lead 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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