CBS News' 60 Minutes Segment on Gun Control Had an Interesting Twist
No Circular Firing Squads This Time, Republicans
A Dem Donor's Family Member Summed Up a Meeting With Biden in Two...
The Relevancy of Drudge Is Over
Pete Hegseth Is the Best Choice to Reform the Pentagon
Conservatives Disagree On Yellowstone’s ‘Woke’ Ending
Biden Commutes Sentences of Nearly All Prisoners on Federal Death Row
To Reform Congress, Enact Term Limits
How the Left VIciously Creates Fake White Male Guilt
Israel Is Not Interested In Victory With Gaza
The Expanding Culture Of Death And How To Stop It
Report: Biden's Nap Delayed Meeting With Gold Star Families Following Chaotic Afghanistan...
Scranton Officials Demand for Biden’s Name to Be Removed from Landmark
Why Hasn’t NASA Told Us About This?
Biden Staffers Pressure President to Dole Out Millions to Defund the Police
Tipsheet

Flashback: When Biden Called Court Packing a 'Bonehead Idea'

AP Photo/Greg Gibson, File

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden continues to avoid answering whether or not he would pack the Supreme Court as president if Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed. Biden went so far as to say Americans don’t deserve to know his position until after the election. 

Advertisement

While people like Fox News’s Chris Wallace say they “don’t understand” Biden’s response, Vice President Mike Pence clarified things for the American people during the VP debate: “if you haven’t figured it out yet, the straight answer is they are going to pack the Supreme Court if they somehow win this election.”

Decades ago, however, Biden was much more clear about his view on court packing.

Amid a move by President Reagan to replace three members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, then Sen. Biden argued that while the president was “within his right to do” so, it threatened the credibility of the commission, comparing it to FDR’s attempt in 1937 to pack the Supreme Court.

“President Roosevelt clearly had the right to send to the United States Senate and the United States Congress a proposal to pack the court,” Biden said in July 1983. “It was totally within his right to do that. He violated no law. He was legalistically, absolutely correct. But it was a bonehead idea. It was a terrible, terrible mistake to make. And it put in question, if for an entire decade, the independence of the most-significant body … in this country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”

Advertisement

In 2005, Biden made similar remarks, calling the idea of court packing a "power grab" during a Senate speech.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement