Term for the Supreme Court Reviewing and Ruling on Acts of Other Branches of Government
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September xviii, 2020, many Americans didn't take the proper time to grieve — instead, they panicked well-nigh what her passing meant for the futurity of the country. Holding the balance of an unabridged republic is too great a burden for anyone's shoulders, and Justice Ginsburg had been carrying that weight for a long, long time. Instead of property infinite for her passing, Republican politicians wasted no fourth dimension in queuing upwardly a nominee for the empty Supreme Court seat, somewhen landing on Amy Coney Barrett — a longtime Notre Dame Police Schoolhouse professor who served fewer than three years on the Seventh Circuit before her nomination to the highest courtroom in the American judicial arrangement.
In 2016, and so-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 "voice" and that to rush a nomination (and confirmation) would be to overly politicize the effect. In 2020, however, McConnell didn't hold to those principles he outlined four years earlier, leading to Barrett's confirmation hearings and equally rushed swearing in ceremony, which took place most a week before Ballot Mean solar day on Oct 26, 2020.
This movement led many to criticize McConnell, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC), who simply tweeted, "Expand the court." Additionally, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (@EdMarkey), who is Ocasio-Cortez'due south Green New Bargain co-author, tweeted, "Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an ballot year. If he violates it, when Democrats command the Senate in the next Congress, we must cancel the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court."
The Number of Supreme Courtroom Seats Has Been Adjusted Before — Hither'due south How Information technology'southward Washed
This phone call for a SCOTUS expansion has led many to wonder: Is such a move even possible? The short answer: yes. Congress could easily change the number of seats on the Supreme Courtroom bench. According to the Supreme Court'due south 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 government. In fact, the number of Justices has shifted several times throughout the Court'due south history. In 1789, the first Judiciary Act set the number of Justices at six; during the Civil War, the number of seats went up to nine and and then briefly 10; and, once President Andrew Johnson took office, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act in 1866, cut the number of Justices to seven so that Johnson couldn't stack the court in favor of Southern states.
Since 1869, notwithstanding, the Supreme Court has been composed of nine Justices. In semi-recent history, at that place's been one notable try to aggrandize the Court — one that volition alive in infamy, then to speak. Dorsum in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt aimed to expand the Courtroom, 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 so that they were colloquially dubbed the "ix old men."
FDR's proposal? Add 1 Justice to the Supreme Court for every 70-year-erstwhile Justice residing on the demote. That would've resulted in 15 Supreme Courtroom Justices, but fifty-fifty the Democrat-controlled Congress — and FDR's own Vice President — were confronting the idea. Since FDR's infamous defeat, no effort to expand or reduce the Supreme Courtroom has gathered much steam — until now.
How Likely Is It That Democrats Will Expand the Supreme Courtroom in 2021?
Interestingly plenty, Pol points out that President Biden has been outspoken virtually non expanding the court. In 2019, President Biden even went as far as proverb "nosotros'll live to rue that 24-hour interval [we expand the Court]," arguing that an expansion would lead to abiding changes — more than expansions, more reductions. In brusk, information technology would shake the American people's faith in the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (and potentially the Democratic party). Of course, that's just one scenario — and one that hasn't happened in the past. But, in the past, Vice President Kamala Harris has shown some back up for the idea, saying she'd be "open up" to it. Still, both Vice President Harris and President Biden have as well dodged questions surrounding court-packing and Supreme Court expansion.
On the other hand, more outspoken proponents have tried to gather 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 do this because they don't believe Dems take the stones to play hardball like they do. And for a long time they've been correct," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "Merely do not permit them smashing the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn't. There is a legal process for expansion."
In the face of a 6–iii Conservative majority, folks like Representative Ocasio-Cortez argue that the Supreme Courtroom is out of residuum — 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. At present, nosotros'll just have to see if this imbalance — and Barrett's 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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