Philip Hamburger on Court Packing
During the 2020 election campaign, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party floated the idea of “court packing” — adding Justices to the Supreme Court. The call for court reform was a response to Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination following the death of Justice Ruther Bader Ginsburg.
Fast forward to April 15, 2021. Congress has introduced legislation that would add four more Justices to the Supreme Court. President Biden, meanwhile, has formed a commission to reform the Supreme Court, either via packing or term limits. The historical situation has striking parallel’s to the 1937 Roosevelt court-packing attempt, which ultimately failed but caused the court to submit to his New Deal agenda in the hope of “saving the court,” regardless of whether they thought the New Deal was constitutional or not.
June 20, 2021
