# Biden to form commission to look at expanding Supreme Court **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 9, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690 "2021-04-09T16:56:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/1 "2021-04-09T16:56:43Z")
This idea will go nowhere with the filibuster intact. > **[Biden to order bipartisan commission to study Supreme Court expansion](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/09/biden-to-order-bipartisan-commission-to-study-supreme-court-expansion.html)** > > President Joe Biden will order a bipartisan commission to study a slew of potential reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court, the White House said. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/2 "2021-04-09T17:25:38Z")
And also in today’s news: > **[Biden wants to end gun-maker liability protections. That could sink the...](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-wants-end-gun-maker-liability-protections-could-sink-industry-n1263556)** > > “He wants to drive us out of business,” said Mark Oliva, a director at a firearm industry trade group. So in one day he presents two proposals which won’t go anywhere but which will generate lots of anti-Biden and anti-Democratic party votes in the 2022 and 2024 elections. I think it is increasingly likely the House and/or Senate will switch to Republican in 2022 and he will lose re-election in 2024: he is just going too far left. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/3 "2021-04-09T17:41:48Z")
I think it’s a greater than 50% chance he won’t run again. But this stuff will certainly hurt Harris or whoever else runs in 2024. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/4 "2021-04-09T17:58:01Z")
Biden mentioned that packing the Supreme Court was a “bone headed idea”; that when Republicans come back into power, they would pack it full of conservatives. How did threatening to pack the court win for FDR? He win whatever he wanted at the time by threatening to pack the court; he didn’t need to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/5 "2021-04-09T18:14:14Z")
Years ago I took a Business Law course and the textbook was written by rather conservative law professors. They said then that the Supreme Court really needed expansion - their case load has been increasing steadily, their cases have been increasing in complexity and the Court can’t really do the job it should be doing. I think you could expand the Supreme Court - two now, another in four years. And I think that if you added a twenty year term limit - with any vacancies filled only for the term remainder - so that every President was nominating justices, you might get a workable compromise. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/6 "2021-04-09T18:24:05Z")
Does congress need to approve with a 2/3 majority in favor of expanding the court? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/7 "2021-04-09T18:26:04Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > So in one day he presents two proposals which won’t go anywhere but which will generate lots of anti-Biden and anti-Democratic party votes in the 2022 and 2024 elections. All the anti-Biden and anti-Democratic voters will be out anyway. Look at their reaction to Suess and Potato head. It is a mistake to try to hold yourself back for fear of what they other will do, they have their own motives. However, these moves may motivate pro-Democratic voters to come out, when otherwise they may not have been. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/8 "2021-04-09T18:26:08Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Does congress need to approve with a 2/3 majority in favor of expanding the court? No, but the Senate would need 60. At least that’s my understanding. There is no way this commission will just come out and say “let Biden add 5 justices”. It would be a package of term limits and rotating appointments. Basically guarantee each president a certain number of replacements and you have defused the whole situation, and also removed the issues of extremely aged justices that may or may not be able to actually do the work. If you could expand the bench to meet the workload as well, all the better. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/9 "2021-04-09T18:35:35Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > It is a mistake to try to hold yourself back for fear of what they other will do, they have their own motives. Right, they already are portraying Biden as a socialist anyways. Having a commission to expand the SCOTUS and wanting to end gun maker liability protections (which polls pretty well, IIRC) are not “going too far left”. That’s pretty laughable. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/10 "2021-04-09T18:43:40Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > No, but the Senate would need 60. So it may as well be 2/3rds given how likely they are to get even a single GOP vote. What is the aim of this “academic” pointless exercise? ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/11 "2021-04-09T18:47:36Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > But this stuff will certainly hurt Harris or whoever else runs in 2024. Maybe. It depends on (1) what the commission actually ends up proposing, and (2) what else happens between now and 2024. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/12 "2021-04-09T19:26:40Z")
A bi-partisan commission is where I would send an idea like this if I wanted it to quietly disappear while I pretended to be giving it sober consideration. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/13 "2021-04-09T19:28:42Z")
That seems like the most plausible explanation thus far. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/14 "2021-04-09T19:40:43Z")
In an earlier thread someone suggested expanding the Supreme Court to thirteen to match the number of districts of the circuit courts and yes, given the number of cases today, a larger number of justices might been needed to handle the volume. So there are legitimate, non-partisan reasons to expand the court. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/15 "2021-04-09T19:43:20Z")
Doing extreme things like this is precisely how to win over Republicans. They want authoritarianism, and don’t care about any principles at all. As long as there’s a strong leader telling them what to do, they’re happy. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/16 "2021-04-09T19:44:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Doing extreme things like this is precisely how to win over Republicans. Forming a bi-partisan commission is an extreme thing now? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/17 "2021-04-09T20:34:27Z")
Justice Breyer is against expanding the court. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/18 "2021-04-09T20:35:59Z")
He doesn’t get a vote. ETA: The fact that Joe Manchin is against it is much more relevant. Or, perhaps, that Joe Biden is against it. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/19 "2021-04-09T20:40:49Z")
Expanding to 13 is perfectly reasonable, given that we now have thirteen circuit courts instead of nine. If Biden proposed a “Democrats nominate two, Republicans nominate two, and we’ll approve all four and expand nine to thirteen,” that might get Senate approval. What won’t work is a bullheaded “We’ll ram and cram 4 new liberal justices down their throats.” Not only would Manchin not stand for it, but it would pave the way for future Republican retaliation once the GOP gets its chance even if it did. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690/20 "2021-04-09T20:41:16Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > He doesn’t get a vote. Of course not, but he does have influence. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-to-form-commission-to-look-at-expanding-supreme-court/939690.md?page=2)