I’m willing to test your theory. I’ll retire from my position as an anonymous poster at TPM as soon as the check clears.
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You could even be Shermanesque about it:
If nominated I will definitely run. If confirmed I will barely serve.
Anyway, my favorite paraphrase was this one:
“If nominated I will run – for the Mexican border. If elected, I will fight extradition.”
(Mo Udall, 1980.)
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This probably counts as off-topic, but why does this talk of 13 justices make me want to go buy a box of donuts from the local bakery down the street?
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What planet does he live on???
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Yes, it puts the SCOTUS conservatives on notice. As FDR learned, a threat to expand the court can sometimes be enough.
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“President Biden campaigned on a promise of lowering the temperature and uniting a divided nation,” McConnell said in a statement last week. “If he really meant it, he would stop giving oxygen to a dangerous, antiquated idea and stand up to the partisans hawking it.”
Umm anyone want to clue me in on when Biden gave this oxygen? I don’t think forming a commission is giving the idea of expanding the court oxygen. McConnell knows better than this, forming a commission is a good way to burry an idea, well at least when Republicans use this method.
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Too soon. Congress already has too much on its plate, and this has no prayer until Democrats have a stronger majority in both houses.
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How could she not be polite? She’s Canadian after all. 
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Because the minions are too stupid and ignorant to understand the function of a commission?
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That’s exactly what that does. Mentioning it, and acting upon it in a public fashion gives it oxygen because it provides fuel for the progressive base.
BINGO! Biden and McConnell do not think alike. Biden is in the business of responsible governing. McConnel is in the business of irresponsible stonewalling.
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She could be Quebecois.
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I totally agree. But in the end, they are Democrats. It’s in the DNA.
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So am I. My great fuckup was not going for a career in politics 30 years ago.
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Well then I couldn’t understand what she was saying, because the French I learned was French.
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He’s feeling it already; hence the lack of action on any abortion bills. It gives me a smidgen of hope for the new voting restrictions.
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I don’t have a problem with this Bill’s rollout.
We need to tend to our voters…the Republicans know our potential. That’s why they don’t want us to vote and are doing everything in their power to keep us from voting.
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I do and I don’t.
I think I’ll appoint a commission to study the matter.
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At the present time there are 13 Supreme Court Circuit Justice Assignments for 9 Justices. As a result several Justices have to shoulder more than one assignment (Roberts, Alito, and Kagen have 2 each).
13 Justices makes sense simply from the standpoint of good management.
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The number of justices should match the number of circuit courts of appeals so each justice has oversight of a circuit, which back in the day was called “riding circuit” because the overseeing justice would literally ride from court to court to review their proceedings. Now there are thirteen circuits, eleven regional ones plus the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal Circuit Court. So increasing the number of justices to thirteen re-establishes the historical match of justices to circuits, making the SCOTUS workload more manageable.
But the Ninth Circuit represents almost 20% of the US population so should be split into two, and other circuits like the 11th are ripe for dividing up as well, with adjustments to the number of sitting appeals judges commensurate with the workload. If and when that happens, the number of Justices should increase apace. Really in order to avoid the partisan fight, a law should be passed to make these adjustments automatically with population growth and changes in distribution.
There’s no reason at all the number needs to be odd, either, because there’s no reason every justice must hear every case. We already review cases by smaller panels at each circuit court, when SCOTUS increases in size we establish the same kind of rules for it.
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As much as it sounds, you’d have to add another zero to the check. Any of them could retire tomorrow and walk into a seven+ figure salary.
And, while I’m not saying they are all so pure, I honestly don’t think that they are after money.
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