Pelosi shelves Supreme Court 'packing' for now

It looks like the ranks of the US Supreme Court will stay in single digits for the time being.

The Judiciary Act of 2021, introduced on Thursday and backed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, would add four seats to the high court, taking it from nine justices to 13.

But on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, "I have no plan to bring it (the legislation) to the floor."

Still, on expanding the court, Pelosi said she "doesn't know if that's a good idea or bad idea".

Pelosi said she preferred the approach taken by President Joe Biden, who created a commission last week of 36 legal scholars to study the issue and report back within six months.

"The president's taking the right approach to have a commission to study such a thing," Pelosi told reporters Thursday. "It's a big step. It's not out of the question. It has been done before."

Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also preferred a wait-and-see approach.

"I'm not ready to sign on yet," he said. "I think this commission of Biden's is the right move. Let's think this through carefully. This is historic."

Nadler argued that because there are now 13 US Circuit Court districts instead of nine that expanding the court makes sense.

"Nine justices may have made sense in the 19th century when there were only nine circuits, and many of our most important federal laws — covering everything from civil rights, to antitrust, the internet, financial regulation, health care, immigration, and white collar crime — simply did not exist, and did not require adjudication by the Supreme Court," Nadler said in a release.

The current court is considered to have a 6-3 conservative make-up, but Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by former Republican president George W. Bush, has not infrequently sided with the court's liberal faction. Adding four more presumably liberal judges, while the Senate was controlled by Democrats, would give liberals a 7-6 edge on paper.

"Some people say we're packing the court. We're not packing it. We're unpacking it," said Nadler. He said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Republicans had "packed the court over the last couple of years. This is a reaction to that. It's a necessary step in the evolution of the court."

Since 1789, Congress has changed the number of justices several times. Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, reducing the court to five justices in an effort to limit incoming President Thomas Jefferson's appointments to the top court.

Jefferson and Republicans soon repealed that act, putting the number back to six justices. In 1807, a seventh justice was added when a seventh circuit court was established.

In 1837, President Andrew Jackson was able to add two more justices after Congress expanded the number of circuit court districts. Congress created a 10th circuit in 1863 during the Civil War, so the court briefly had a 10th justice.

But in 1866, a year after the war ended, Congress reduced the court to seven justices, before returning it to the current nine in 1869.

The last attempt to change the court came in 1937; President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to add six justices, a proposal that was defeated by a 70-20 vote in the Senate.

Supporters of expanding the court say Republicans gained an advantage by blocking President Barack Obama's 2016 nomination of Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge then who is now Biden's attorney general, arguing that it was a presidential election year and voters should have a say.

McConnell refused to hold hearings on filling the vacancy after conservative Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February 2016, nine months before the presidential election.

"Democrats need to remember they're not always going to be in power, believe it or not, and it could be just in two years that they're not in power anymore," Christopher Scalia, son of the late justice, told Fox News on Thursday.

Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and a sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement: "Republicans stole the court's majority, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation (in October) completing their crime spree.

"Senate Republicans have politicized the Supreme Court, undermined its legitimacy, and threatened the rights of millions of Americans, especially people of color, women, and our immigrant communities," he said.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday charged that Democrats were "going to dismantle an institution to advance their socialist agenda".

The other two House sponsors of the bill are Democratic representatives Mondaire Jones of New York and Hank Johnson of Georgia, both of whom serve on the Judiciary Committee.