Demand Justice, a liberal group with ties to Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, emailed supporters on Tuesday saying the “clearest solution” to protect “constitutional rights” to abortion is to expand the Court. This came right after a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked that signaled that Roe v. Wade would be overturned.
The email went on to say, “[f]rom the need for access to abortion and reproductive healthcare, to the need for an adequate and immediate plan to address climate change, to the need for robust gun violence prevention, Republicans have categorically rejected issues that a commanding and consistent majority of Americans support.”
Jen Psaki, Biden’s current Press Secretary, used to be an outside advisor to Demand Justice. Paige Herwig, Biden’s Senior Counsel, who advises him on judicial nominations, also worked for the group before joining Biden’s administration. Finally, a former staffer to Hillary Clinton now heads Demand Justice.
Demand Justice is advocating for Biden to pack the Supreme Court. According to Brittanica, “[c]ourt packing is increasing the number of seats on a court to change the ideological makeup of the court. The United States Constitution does not dictate the number of justices on the Supreme Court, but states only: ‘The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.'”
This is something the Democrats have been advocating for awhile. Joe Biden’s position on the issue has not always been the same. In 1983, he said Franklin D. Roosevelt’s court packing proposal was a “bonehead idea.” In 2019 Biden still said he was “not prepared to go on and try to pack the court, because we’ll live to rue that day.”
Since his election, however, Biden created a commission to study SCOTUS. Many Democrats have advocated for packing the Court, including Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. On April 9, Biden convened a 180-day study on the effects of expanding it.
Given what the leaked opinion signaled, do you think Biden will try to pack the Supreme Court?
