Biden Unveils Commission To Study SCOTUS Reform | Talking Points Memo

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#68

This isn’t going to produce anything of value so no one is going to care one way or another.

The point is to release some of the pressure on Biden to make the court reform a priority. Now every question the administration gets will just get redirected to this.

This thing has already accomplished its goal and provided the maximum utility that it will. If Dems want to reform the court they will need to maintain the Senate majority and the Presidency thru 2024. My cynicism says that’s a feature not a bug as well.

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#69

They have six months to produce a report. But I don’t know if that means they are done. Sounds like they can continue the work.

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#70

Doesn’t have much to do with the players on the court as the people who pick the players.

A bipartisan commission has about as much impact as as the thrust of a butterfly wing. Lots of people think it has an impact and those people are wrong because they ignore all other factors.

#71

That’s a good question but, no, the commission does not keep going. Here’s the relevant part of the actual executive order:

Sec. 5. Termination. The Commission shall terminate 30 days after it submits its report to the President.

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#72

What it’s likely to produce is a report that goes into a good deep dive of how the population has changed since the last time the numbers were touched, how the circuit courts have expanded in that period, and the like.

Nothing that we don’t already know, but a solid report can provide the groundwork arguments that would then feed into subsequent legislative action.

Doubt anything will happen before 2023, considering we pretty clearly don’t have the votes in the Senate to pull it off now anyways, but will put things in the hopper if we can pull off a miracle and gain seats in the midterms.

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#73

Sc Justice Breyer: “Think long and hard before changing the court makeup”

Joe Biden: “Agreed”

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#74

Which Republicans will use as an excuse to pack the court even more after they kill the filibuster to do it.

Joe Manchin isn’t saving the filibuster he letting Republicans decide to kill it when convenient for them

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#75

Like to see a special commission on Clarence Thomas reform. Top priority. Experts can discuss WTF is wrong with him. Another one on Kavanaugh, discuss impeaching him for lying to congress, but only as time permits.

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#76

If this committee is even able to produce a report prior to the end of the term, it will have less impact that the Mueller Report which at least had statutes to grapple with rather than esoteric constitutional and legal principles and still ended up there making not a bit of difference.

I really like Biden but this is the one area that I think is just a total blunder. The administration is attempting to protect the constitutional order by protecting the court’s “majesty” through delay but the court lost the thing they were attempting to protect decades ago when the right created the Federalist Society and started grooming the personification of cancer in law schools and eventually in district and appellate level judges. The Roberts Court is the return on that investment, not the leading indicator of decay. If you delay dealing with cancer it doesn’t get better.

#77

Jerry Rubin would approve.

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#78

And also, back then, any little infection could end up killing you. Not to mention agricultural, fishing, and forest accidents, wars, shipwrecks, yellow fever, cholera, typhus, smallpox, etc.!

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#79

This is true. The 20th century really was an age of medical miracles.

#80

You think that Manchin would support packing the court?

Biden can count votes, as long as we don’t have them, pointless to pursue legislation, especially as this sort of thing would be a one-time shot-- fail, it’s not coming back around for another couple of decades.

But can take moves that help move the ball along, which is what the study will do.

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#81

Two croissants? What’s wrong with a sloppy joe, or a hot dog (no relish of course)?

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#82

I lost my appetite until after Thanksgiving.

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#83

Elitists eat different.

But on the other hand, croissants served via Zoom taste exactly like sloppy joes and hot dogs served via Zoom – so there’s that.

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#84

No I don’t think Manchin would support it, I just don’t agree that this move the ball down the court. It feels more like taking the ball off the court if we are using references referring to balls.

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#85

If you don’t have the votes, you can either choose to sit on your hands, or do something that’s at least performative. Biden’s choosing the latter, at least tees up the ball.

The 9/11 Commission Report did end up changing things.

Reports and all that may be wonky and boring stuff for many folks, but they provide the underpinnings of a lot of legislation which comes after.

#86

OT, but Gaetz just lost another staffer.

" A source directly connected to Murphy said he left the job, not specifically because of Gaetz’s legal troubles, but because the “media circus” surrounding the Republican made it difficult to accomplish “meaningful congressional work.”

Who knew Gaetz planned to one day do “meaningful congressional work?”

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#87

hahahahahaha yeah that’s a good one.

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