What Must the Supreme Court Have to Render a Decision in a Case
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020, many Americans didn't accept the proper time to grieve — instead, they panicked about what her passing meant for the future of the country. Holding the rest of an entire commonwealth is too swell a burden for anyone's shoulders, and Justice Ginsburg had been carrying that weight for a long, long time. Instead of belongings space for her passing, Republican politicians wasted no time in queuing up a nominee for the empty Supreme Court seat, eventually landing on Amy Coney Barrett — a longtime Notre Matriarch Constabulary School professor who served fewer than three years on the Seventh Circuit before her nomination to the highest court in the American judicial system.
In 2016, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell infamously vowed to block President Obama'due south approachable Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland on the grounds that the American people should accept a "voice" and that to rush a nomination (and confirmation) would exist to overly politicize the issue. In 2020, however, McConnell didn't hold to those principles he outlined 4 years earlier, leading to Barrett'south confirmation hearings and every bit rushed swearing in ceremony, which took place most a week earlier Election Twenty-four hour period on October 26, 2020.
This move led many to criticize McConnell, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC), who simply tweeted, "Aggrandize the court." Additionally, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (@EdMarkey), who is Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal co-writer, tweeted, "Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an ballot twelvemonth. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court."
The Number of Supreme Court Seats Has Been Adjusted Before — Here'southward How It's Done
This call for a SCOTUS expansion has led many to wonder: Is such a move even possible? The short answer: yes. Congress could hands change the number of seats on the Supreme Courtroom 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 some other example of those supposed checks and balances that guide a constitutional government. In fact, the number of Justices has shifted several times throughout the Court's history. In 1789, the first Judiciary Act set the number of Justices at half dozen; during the Civil State of war, the number of seats went upwards to 9 then briefly ten; and, once President Andrew Johnson took role, 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, all the same, the Supreme Court has been equanimous of nine Justices. In semi-contempo history, there's been one notable attempt to expand the Courtroom — one that will live 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 affect with the times, so much and then that they were colloquially dubbed the "ix old men."
FDR's proposal? Add together one Justice to the Supreme Court for every 70-year-old Justice residing on the bench. That would've resulted in 15 Supreme Court Justices, just even the Democrat-controlled Congress — and FDR's own Vice President — were confronting the idea. Since FDR's infamous defeat, no attempt to expand or reduce the Supreme Courtroom has gathered much steam — until now.
How Probable Is It That Democrats Volition Aggrandize the Supreme Court in 2021?
Interestingly enough, Politico points out that President Biden has been outspoken about not expanding the court. In 2019, President Biden fifty-fifty went every bit far as saying "we'll alive to rue that mean solar day [nosotros expand the Court]," arguing that an expansion would lead to abiding changes — more than expansions, more reductions. In brusque, it would shake the American people'southward faith in the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (and potentially the Democratic party). Of course, that's just one scenario — and i that hasn't happened in the past. Simply, in the by, Vice President Kamala Harris has shown some support for the idea, saying she'd be "open" to it. Nevertheless, both Vice President Harris and President Biden have likewise dodged questions surrounding court-packing and Supreme Court expansion.
On the other manus, more than 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 election years. "Republicans practice this considering they don't believe Dems take the stones to play hardball like they do. And for a long fourth dimension they've been right," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "But do non allow them bully the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal only a response isn't. In that location is a legal procedure for expansion."
In the face of a half-dozen–iii Conservative majority, folks like Representative Ocasio-Cortez argue that the Supreme Court is out of balance — and, more than that, it isn't quite reflective of the American people'south concerns and values. So much lies in the hands of the court: the fate of the Affordable Intendance Human activity, Roe v. Wade and matrimony equality, just to proper name a few. Now, we'll just have to come across if this imbalance — and Barrett'south speedy date — are enough to convince President Biden and members of Congress to seriously consider a Supreme Courtroom 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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