This election is about so many different things, and it’s really all about just one. Do we want to complete our decent into autocracy, or try to climb out of this hellscape of avarice? Anyone on the left still buying into the media manufactured “crisis” of a poor debate night needs a fresh story to latch onto. (There goes senile old Joe doing things again, like acting to prevent the fall of Democracy by doing things we want like nominating smart, articulate and ethical justices.) Instead of playing defense, how about we go on offense for once and highlight what this election is about in a way the press can’t ignore? If President Biden were to publicly commit to expanding the Supreme Court and begin to send nominations to the Senate, we’d sure fix the news cycle.
The initial press cycle would be all about the announcement of doing so. As part of the announcement President Biden would obviously make it clear the court has gone rogue with its decision granting presidential immunity. In this way he puts forth a narrative of rejecting a power grab by promising to put justices who would reverse this decision. He’s packing the court because he wants LESS power, not more. Plus it would sure be fun to do so the week of July 15th.
The media will of course attack him in many ways. They will declare this to be an attempt to change the subject away from Joe being old. Which in fact it is, it just happens to also be a good reason as this is far more important than Joe being in his 80s. They will spin it as a liberal power grab, which it only sort of is. Had Republicans not packed the court in the first place, it wouldn’t need to be done. But the media will spin against Biden no matter what. So let’s put the spinning in a venue of our choosing.
Increasing the size of the Supreme Court is a move the media cannot ignore. Particularly when such a move would be announced in a special televised address to the nation. But it forces the media onto a topic which no matter how hard they spin, it’s one that people are already worried about and which the media will have a harder time distorting.
Next, the announcement comes with obvious followup actions which will continue to force the subject back to the Supreme Court. There will be “leaks” about who is on the FIRST short list. There will be “Leaks” about the different types of justices to fill different spots. There will then be the first nomination and Senate hearings on that nomination. Should the Senate not move fast enough, the White House can release a second nomination (for a different position) before the Senate is done with the first. It will be nonstop focus on the types of judges Democrats want.
Even before the hearing it provides opportunities for the nominees to be questioned about recent Supreme Court decisions. Should the media pass on that, then whether the Senate hearings ever come to a vote or note, we get to hear all sorts of great questions from the Democratic side while the Republican Senators, some of which are seeking reelection, continue to ask questions which reminds people of just how many topics they disagree with the republicans on.
It does not matter whether the Democrats have the votes in the Senate to accomplish this or not. The Sinema/Manchin duo can blather on forever about how the Senate Filibuster or the exact number of Supreme Court Justices are both “traditions” they place over the constitution or historical precedence. It will create plenty of opportunities for Democrats to teach people how the Supreme Court didn’t start at 9 justices (it started with 6) and this wouldn’t be the first time the number was changed.
If Alito and Thomas want to blather about original intent, then we can give them the choice of going down to 6 Justices instead so long as they (and Roberts) are the ones to take a vacation. Once off, we’ll be happy to move the court back to 9 and replace them using the Mitch McConnell Rule of “we’ll do whatever the hell we please with vacancies”.
But really, it will probably happen after the elections. But such a move does several very important things. It gives Biden a way to interrupt any bad news cycle with a hell of a story. It reinforces that this election is about our core principles of governance and democracy itself. It highlights how the present court got there through minority rule. It highlights the importance of electing more Democrats to the Senate. It prepares the public for an actual change in the Supreme Court. So when a new (hopefully Democrat led) Senate sits in 2025 it will not be breaking new ground with expanding the court, but will have the new ground broken for it by an election where this very topic was present for voters to vote on their representatives with this in mind.
There is very little downside to this maneuver. The Supreme Court is already pretty damn bad. The media is already out for Biden’s blood whether he wants this or not. And no matter how hard the media tries to spin this as Biden being the first to politicize this court, this court has clearly done so themselves.
History won’t look at this as a power grab, but as a way to right the dangerously floundering ship of our Democracy.