They could've ballooned it up to 50 justices with all the new additions being Federalist Society ghouls. They could've made the number 9 irrelevant. Why didn't they jump at this easy opportunity to consolidate power?

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    It would have given the Dems a thing to do a political stunt about.

    There's the chunk of the right wingers who are pretty libby about "respecting institutions" that would throw a fit and cause some friction.

    There's the chunk of the right wingers that talk about making government smaller, and would throw a fit about it.

    Also, a sign of weakness. "Is our way of thinking so shitty and out of touch that the only way we can get things to pass is effectively by 'cheating'?"

    Dems and Repubs do a TON of fundraising around the supreme court itself and the cases that will be brought before it. This goes away if one side pulled the trigger and packed the courts.

    And as has been said elsewhere, most of the justices are old and conservative, even the ones put there by the folks wearing the "blue jersey". So like, there's not going to be any real resistance to the rightward slide.