Republican attorneys general (AGs) across the country are prepared to fight the recently introduced court-packing legislation, as indicated by their vocal statements of opposition to it, endorsements of the Keep Nine amendment, and vows to explore legal routes to challenge the legislation.
In interviews with Breitbart News, several AGs expressed they were firmly against the court-packing bill, unveiled Thursday as the Judiciary Act of 2021 by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), and other Democrats.
“This is an effort for the Democrats to try to add numbers to the Court to be able to validate the most liberal agenda that we’ve seen out of Congress in clearly my lifetime,” Alabama AG Steve Marshall told Breitbart News. Missouri AG Eric Schmitt called it “a total affront to our Republic” and “counterintuitive to the Founders’ vision.”
Talk of court packing first resurfaced last fall amid the swift confirmation process of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the third justice appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Barrett’s appointment fueled Democrat outrage, prompting leftist calls for court-packing as party leaders decried Trump and the Republican-majority Senate seating a new justice with the 2020 election — and the possibility of party control shifting in Washington — just weeks away.
Markey, as he introduced the Judiciary Act, claimed the Supreme Court, which tends to lean 5–4 conservative, was “illegitimate” and that after justices are added to it, “the bench will then rightfully reflect the values of the majority of the American people on whose behalf they serve.”
Marshall assessed the effort: “This is all about power.”
