Biden to sign exec. order forming Presidential Commission on SC

The White House has revealed that President Joe Biden is today going to sign an executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the US Supreme Court (SC).

The commission will be made up of a bipartisan group of the SC and the SC reform debate experts.

“In addition to legal and other scholars, the Commissioners includes former federal judges and practitioners who have appeared before the Court, as well as advocates for the reform of democratic institutions and of the administration of justice,” said a White House statement. “The expertise represented on the Commission includes constitutional law, history and political science.”

The purpose of the commission is to deliver an assessment of the main arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against the SC reform. This includes an analysis of the legality and merits of certain reform suggestions. The commission will be evaluating topics such as the reform debate’s genesis; the role of the SC in the constitutional system; the length of service and turnover on the SC’s justices; the SC’s size and membership and the practices, rules and case selection of the SC.

Public meetings will be held by the commission to hear views of other specialists, and groups and concerned people with diverse point of views on the matters the commission will be analyzing.

The president’s order instructs the commission to complete its report within 180 days of its first public meeting.

At the time of this writing, the only Republican who has issued a statement is Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.).

“I share Justice Breyer and the late Justice Ginsburg’s view that nine is the right number of seats on the Supreme Court,” said Senator Blunt in his statement. “If every new administration decides they can just pack the courts, there will be no limit to how many seats you could end up with.”

He added, “I think an Executive Branch commission that investigates and analyzes the work of the Supreme Court challenges the balance of power between the Executive and Judicial Branches, and puts the Court in a much more partisan and political place than it should be.”

Among the Democrats who have issued statements supporting the upcoming executive order of President Biden at the time of this writing are Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY).

Senator Durbin said, “With today’s executive order, the Biden Administration has pledged to study potential reforms to the Supreme Court.”

He added, “This deliberative approach will be led by two highly renowned attorneys and legal scholars – Bob Bauer and Cristina Rodriguez – and I have full faith that they will lead this Commission with an open mind and a commitment to hearing many perspectives. I look forward to the Commission’s report and to discussions about important potential reforms.”

Congressman Jones stated, “Today, the President of the United States acknowledged that it is time to reform the Supreme Court, following the example of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant. By convening this commission, President Biden has spoken clearly: The question is no longer if we will reform the Supreme Court, but how we will reform the Supreme Court.”

He added, “The answer to that question is equally clear: to restore our democracy, we must expand the Supreme Court. Anything less would leave the future of our nation, our planet, and our fundamental civil rights at the whim of a far-right supermajority that is hostile to democracy itself. Of course, many Americans will rightly be skeptical of a commission composed almost entirely of people protected from the real-life consequences of the Supreme Court’s right-wing extremism. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful that the commission will join our rising movement for Court expansion.”

The 33-year-old Congressman from New York’s 17th District concluded, “In the meantime, Congress has the power, and the constitutional duty, to set the size of the Court, as it has seven times throughout our history. My colleagues and I need not wait for the findings of a commission. We already know the obvious: we must expand the Supreme Court, before it’s too late.”

Update: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) just released a statement on the White House’s commission formation to analyze “packing” the SC. Senator McConnell called the White House’s announcement “a direct assault on our nation’s independent judiciary and yet another sign of the Far Left’s influence over the Biden Administration.” Read McConnell’s full statement here.