It has been 151 years since the number of justices on the Supreme Court was last altered. However, some are now threatening to impose a court-packing scheme that would destroy all credibility for our nation’s highest court.
The number of justices on the Supreme Court varied during the formational years of our nation. The Judiciary Act of 1869 established that the number was firmly set at nine justices. That act of Congress called for “a Chief Justice and eight associate justices,” a foundation that has stood firm since.
Over the generations since 1869, our nation has overcome incredible challenges and embraced courageous growth. World Wars, global communist threat, drought, famine, severe economic depression, women’s rights, the Civil Rights Movement, contentious elections, impeachments, and countless other political debates. We have met and overcome challenges, and we have deepened our resolve to represent freedom. Through it all, all of it, our entire history since the Civil War… the Supreme Court has remained unchanged in size. The court’s rulings have been recognized, challenged, debated, and sometimes reversed, but the perfected structure of our Supreme Court has always been respected. While we may not agree with every ruling, we haven’t rewritten the formula. We have maintained our faith in the institution and worked together to overcome any obstacles.
Only once in this modern era has court-packing even been attempted. In 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court to 15. He hoped to produce a court that would rubber-stamp his New Deal policies rather than serve as an independent institution within our federal system of checks and balances. FDR’s proposal was sharply rejected and criticized even by his own Vice President. There has been, through the years, some discussion of altering the Judiciary Act of 1869. Enough to draw the condemnation of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, God rest her soul. In 2019, Justice Ginsburg cited FDR’s attempt to pack the court and said, “if anything would make the court look partisan, it would be that.”
Today’s Democrats seem intent on destroying the credibility of the Supreme Court. They’ve crossed their arms, and they’re stomping their feet. Damn the consequences, they just want their way. And their way will lead America, eventually, to a sad demise. We’ve heard these calls from Democrats like Senator Chuck Schumer and Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Joe Kennedy and others. As these ideas enter the Democratic mainstream, Joe Biden has refused to tell the American people where he stands. Who would he nominate? Would he sign legislation to pack the court? He’s been in political office for 47 years. 47 years. Think about that. One would think he knows a few judges.
Democratic anger toward America, focused on hatred for our President. President Trump has successfully appointed over 200 Constitutionalist Article III judges to the federal judiciary. The President and Republican majority Senate have appointed and confirmed these judges through regular order, not through some partisan and unilateral change in the law. What we’re seeing with Democrats is the opposite. They are threatening injury to our Constitutionally-sound Federal court structure simply because they are insane with hatred toward Americans who dare to disagree with their socialist agenda. They have become void of any legitimate reasoning.
In the coming days, President Trump will announce his third appointment to the Supreme Court. The President’s nominee is sure to be a highly regarded Constitutionalist… a fact that has Chuck Schumer and his Democratic colleagues beside themselves. Their hatred grows increasingly threatening to our Republic. For evidence, look no further than their plot to overturn the structure of our Supreme Court, which has stood since 1869. They are wrapped in their own cloak of misery and hatred, steeped in vitriol, they bask in the darkness of their socialist vision.
Soon, Democrats will viciously and relentlessly disparage an American woman, who shall herself sit stoic, determined to serve her God and Country as our next Supreme Court Justice. An American citizen will endure unconscionable attack. The type of grossly political behavior that I’ve come to expect from the elite, the leftist D.C. career politicians.
President Trump has a Constitutional duty to fill this seat. America will soon have another Constitutionalist confirmed to the Supreme Court. What ensues beyond 2020 is up to We, the People.
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Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) represents Louisiana’s 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
