Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher is leading an effort to save the Supreme Court by introducing a constitutional amendment to limit the number of justices to nine.
The proposed amendment is being co-sponsored by five other members of the House GOP, including Reps. Chris Jacobs of New York, Ken Buck of Colorado, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Ted Budd of North Carolina and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
The move follows an executive order issued by President Joe Biden that will establish a commission to analyze so-called “reforms” to the Supreme Court, including court packing.
Though Biden has remained notoriously tight-lipped about his own opinions on expanding the Supreme Court, Democrats hope that they can use the commission to dilute the power of the conservative majority on the nation’s highest court.
Buck issued a scathing tweet on the issue Friday, saying that “President Biden is caving to far-left fringe activists and attacking the independence of the federal judiciary.”
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also blasted the thinly veiled attempt to pack the Supreme Court with leftist justices, according to The Associated Press, calling it “a direct assault on our nation’s independent judiciary and another sign of the Far Left’s influence over the Biden administration.”
Democrats have long accused Republicans of court packing, or manipulating the membership of the courts to fulfill partisan goals. All of former President Donald Trump’s nominations to the Supreme Court were made to fill an existing vacancy, however, whereas this new Democratic court packing effort is an overt attempt to manipulate the constitutional framework of the United States to ensure the supremacy of petty progressive politics.
