Expanding the Supreme Court to more than nine seats sounds like a radical idea, and the term for it, “court packing,” sounds derisive because it has created controversy every time it has come up. But it has been attempted — and done — in American history before.
Now the idea is back in the political mainstream as some Democrats, frustrated that the Supreme Court could get even more conservative in the coming months, push presidential nominee Joe Biden to consider it if he wins the White House and Democrats take back the Senate majority.
Biden seems reluctant — he hasn’t acknowledged Democratic calls to do this since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died — but there is a world in which he may warm to it and attempt to push through legislation. Here’s what it is, its history and how it could become a reality. Continue reading.