Well OK, then

Democrats Must Expand The Supreme Court

Why Democrats Should Pack the Supreme Court

Despite Democrats’ having won the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, the Supreme Court has not had a liberal majority since 1969. 

Because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell straight-out stole the seat vacated by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia early in 2016, a seat that should have been filled by President Barack Obama’s nominee (Merrick Garland), liberals are unlikely to control the Court for at least another couple of decades. 

As has been frequently noted, recently appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were nominated to the Court by a president who lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes, and were then confirmed by a majority of senators who represented minorities of the American population. 

Even before the appointment of Justice Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court—which has always been a political institution—had become an adjunct of the Republican Party. 

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However, on this occasion, there is an obvious response to the concern that if Democrats pack the Court, Republicans will just pack in further in their favor at the next opportunity: Republicans are already packing the courts. 

As already noted, Senator McConnell stole the seat that should have gone to Merrick Garland. 

Over the last two years of the Obama presidency, Senator McConnell blocked every presidential nominee to the federal appellate courts but one; in the first two years of Trump’s presidency, McConnell has secured the confirmation of nearly thirty federal appellate judges. 

As noted, Republicans in North Carolina and Florida are openly announcing plans to pack those states’ supreme courts after the 2018 elections. 

In that political context, for Democrats not to respond in kind is to commit political suicide.