President Joe Biden has begun staffing his promised commission to “reform” the Supreme Court and the rest of the judiciary.
The commission, which will be part of the White House Counsel’s office and chaired by Biden campaign lawyer Bob Bauer, is moving ahead with its plan to propose various reforms — including court-packing — to the judiciary branch.
Members already added to the commission include: Yale Law School professor Cristina Rodriguez, former president of the American Constitution Society Caroline Fredrickson, and Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith, according to Politico.
Fredrickson has been a vocal advocate for court-packing.
“I often point out to people who aren’t lawyers that the Supreme Court is not defined as ‘nine person body’ in the Constitution, and it has changed size many times,” she reportedly told Eric Lesh, the executive director of the LGBT Bar Association, in 2019.
Rodriguez’s views are less clear, but Goldsmith could prove to be an important check on any radical progressive agenda.
He was not a Trump supporter, but he did back Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Biden’s commission was proposed as a way for him to dodge questions about court-packing.
Democrats have made it clear they intend to add seats to the Supreme Court to get rid of the bench’s conservative majority, and instead of refuting them, Biden stayed silent.
“It’s not about court packing,” Biden said back in October when asked about the commission. “There’s a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated and I’ve looked to see what recommendations that commission might make.”
“There’s a number of alternatives that go well beyond packing,” he added. “The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football — whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want. Presidents come and go. Supreme Court justices stay for generations.”
