House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would not bring a bill that would add four seats to the Supreme Court to the House floor.
The bill, proposed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., would give Democrats a liberal majority on the bench if it passed.
But Pelosi said she would not support it.
“No,” she said when asked if she would bring it to the House floor for a vote. “I support the president’s commission to study such a proposal, but frankly I’m not – right now, we’re back, our members, our committees are working. We’re putting together the infrastructure bill and the rest.”
Speaker Pelosi on Rep. Nadler’s bill to expand the Supreme Court: “I have no plans to bring it to the floor.” https://t.co/gtamAgH7l6 pic.twitter.com/PymSwXbq7m
— The Hill (@thehill) April 15, 2021
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea or a bad idea,” she added. “I think it’s an idea that should be considered and I think the president’s taking the right approach to have a commission to study such a thing. It’s a big step.”
When pressed, Pelosi admitted expanding the Supreme Court is “not out of the question” and hinted that she might even support such a move if it was recommended by President Joe Biden’s Democrat-controlled and -led “judiciary reform” commission.
“It has been done before in the history of our country a long time ago. And the growth of our country, the size of our country, the growth of our challenges in terms of the economy, etc., might necessitate such a thing,” she explained.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News on Thursday night that Pelosi is not to be trusted, despite what she says:
Do not trust Nancy Pelosi when she says she will not move it. Remember, that’s what she said about impeachment before she moved impeachment twice. We’ve watched her time and time again to come to what the socialists actually asked for. She surrendered to the socialists many times before, and she will do it again.
Biden created the “bipartisan” commission last week to evaluate potential reforms to the court, including court-packing.
The topics the commission will study include the tenure of justices, the Supreme Court’s “role in the constitutional system,” and the “membership and size of the court,” according to the White House.
