Democrats in both congressional chambers are set to unveil a legislative plan to expand the size of the Supreme Court on Thursday, in order to pack the court with liberal jurists. With control of the White House, Senate, and House, Democrats hope to undermine the court’s current conservative majority.
Republicans are pushing back on the progressive idea. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed the move, pointing out that if Republicans sought to uproot an institution as important as the Supreme Court, outrage would ensue.
"If Republicans had introduced a bill to add four Supreme Court seats for the last President to fill, there would have been weeks of wall-to-wall outrage on every newspaper and cable TV channel,” McConnell said on Thursday. "Now it seems the main strategies are either to shrug and look the other way or to actively play along and lend credence."
Sen. Mitch McConnell: "If Republicans had introduced a bill to add four Supreme Court seats for the last president to fill, there would have been weeks of wall-to-wall outrage on every newspaper and cable TV channel nonstop." https://t.co/gtamAgH7l6 pic.twitter.com/yKgUXhY8Rr
— The Hill (@thehill) April 15, 2021
"Now it seems the main strategies are either to shrug and look the other way or to actively play along and lend credence."
— Doug Andres (@DougAndres) April 15, 2021
McConnell controlled the upper chamber for the entirety of the Trump administration, and never once proposed a partisan power grab as Democrats are doing now. Senate Democrats and President Biden also pitched a “return to normalcy” and “protection of institutions” in Washington while on the campaign trail, in hopes of taking back majorities. Now, with nearly complete control of Washington, Democrat leaders are attempting to turn the Supreme Court into an avenue to elevate their agenda. Notably, President Biden once called court packing a "bonehead idea."
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