DOOOO IT! Doooo IT!
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A tie is not a stalemate. A tie means simply that the lower court decision is not reversed as a majority is not in favor of so doing.
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. And you can’t put the toothpaste back in the barn…
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I don’t think this bill is actually intended to pass.
It’s a bow shot. It’s intended to increase the heat on John Roberts’ feet.
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John “Post-Racial Society” Roberts
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But you can put the horse back in the London Underground.
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It’s about time. Even if this effort is doomed, it’s a start. It gets the discussion out the open and puts the current Supremes on notice. Think hard you say, Breyer? Well yes, actually we have been thinking pretty long and pretty hard about this already, m-fer.
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I disagree. Biden doesn’t believe in court reform, and doesn’t want to upset his base by saying so. It seems pretty clear to me that he was hoping to use the commission to kill the idea through delay (and maybe introduce some small-bore ideas he does favor). Notably, from what I understand, the commission doesn’t include anyone who is in favor of expanding the Court.
Markey and Nadler - and it should be noted that Nadler is by no means a left-winger - introducing this bill now are doing it intentionally to circumvent the commission. I think now is the right time to do it, before the commission succeeds in killing all momentum around the idea.
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I don’t know whether Biden believes in court reform or not. Perhaps the Dems are seeding the ground of public opinion. Get people to talk about why they would expand it ahead of the commission’s report.
This is what the GQP would do: stake out the position and keep repeating it until it sounds acceptable. Just keep pounding on it.
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$10 million cash pensions payable immediately upon retirement.
Problem solved.
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The way the Democrats’ allies are framing it, the bill’s already dead. Framing it as a partisan move to offset prior partisan moves is just… fucking stupid. It writes the attack ads for the Republicans.
Ugh. This is such fucking amateur-hour bullshit. Markey and Nadler should know better than to let the messaging get away from them before they even fucking announce.
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The commission does include a contingent that has been working to expand the Court since before the Kavanaugh confirmation.
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Now I’m wondering if someone would accept a nomination just to get their hands on that money.
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How many Justices would serve for 20 minutes, then announce their retirement? >.>
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“Get their hands on that money”
Me! Me! Me! Who better to cancel out John Roberts than Robert Jones!?!
Is anybody listening!?!
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Overton Window
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I would! But really, if anyone immediately took the moiney and ran, isn’t that just money well spent to get them off the Court?
Not many. But if they do, good riddance to bad rubbish.
More seriously, $10 million is enough to incentivize people to retire in due course, not a megamillions lottery result.
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There are 12 Federal regional/geographic circuits + 1 federal circuit court of appeal for a total of 13. 1 Justice for each seems good. However, I’d be ok with 12 SCOTUS justices. I don’t think ties are bad. In such cases, the appellate ruling would be upheld. It would force the SCOTUS to arrive at consensus and diminish their power. I think the majority of the SCOTUS’ history suggests that there needs to be check on that institution.
This bill won’t get passed now, but if Dems were to expand their Senate and House Majorities in '22, this would definitely get passed. No new Dem Senators in 2023 will be pro-filibuster and Manchin’s power will be diluted. Adding to SCOTUS will have great support in the Dem House caucus.
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Markey and Nadler need to be slapped, and have every one of their staffers slapped, for this getting out the way it did. It’s already being framed by our allies as a nakedly partisan move, how the hell will our opponents frame it?
This should have been something where there were non-committal grunts and mutterings about ‘I don’t know, I might consider reform so that each Circuit has its own Justice on the high court’ for weeks before anything got announced. You have to take the steps that give members of the other side ways to work with you—even if only so that you can blame them for it when they don’t. Making it a nakedly partisan move ensures they can’t take your side, and so leaves you once again forced to hold together the entire caucus to make progress… and it’s progress on something that’ll be seen as political, rather than actually useful.
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Had a right-wing wag on SM decide that this was a lie that Joe told during the campaign, that he wouldn’t pack the court.
I decided it was a fool’s errand to explain to him about the 13 districts, vs. the 9 justice seats. I know the guy well enough that all he wants to do is make a punching bag out of Joe. Nor did I decide to waste any time explaining McConnell’s role last year in doing precisely what the wag is accusing Joe of doing.
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