Packing the Supreme Court? Kamala Harris pushes idea as the party quickly forgets about Joe Biden
Former Vice President Kamala Harris wants to expand the Supreme Court.
This is a seriously awful idea.
FDR, at the height of his popularity, after winning his first reelection, tried that – and got his head handed to him.
The reason for his effort, in 1937, to have as many as 15 justices was to overcome conservative opposition to his blizzard of New Deal programs.
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Sound familiar?
Even some Democrats at the time thought this would fatally undermine the independence of the judiciary.
Congress refused to approve the bill, even though Roosevelt enjoyed a big Democratic majority.
But the high court, perhaps under pressure, then did start upholding major New Deal programs launched after the Great Depression.
Harris said she wanted to "invite ideas," such as packing SCOTUS, leaving herself some wiggle group. Her goal: "To neutralize this red state cheating."
In a call with the liberal group Emerge, the former vice president also said they should look at the Electoral College as well as statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico, both efforts that would help the Democrats.
Harris, who became the Democratic nominee when Joe Biden dropped out, lost all seven swing states to Donald Trump in 2024. She was extraordinarily cautious during her 107-day run, spending the first third of it refusing to talk to the media.
Now she's increasingly acting like a candidate, perhaps emboldened by Trump's unpopularity because of the Iran war and other issues.
House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Harris of a "dangerous gambit," saying: "You don't just blow up the system when you lose."
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The reason most politicians avoid messing with the court, the Electoral College or the Senate filibuster, is fear. They have dark visions of the same unchecked powers being used against them when they no longer control the White House or Congress. Republicans worry they would be unable to stop an all-out liberal agenda, starting with national health insurance, when they are on the receiving end.
One of Harris' many problems during the campaign was that she couldn't separate from Biden, famously telling "The View" that "not a thing comes to mind" on what she would have done differently.
The former president, meanwhile, has been keeping an extraordinarily low profile. The Democrats have basically moved on from Biden, who is battling cancer.
Even during his time in the White House, Trump drew more media attention as he battled four criminal investigations. This was in part because Biden walled himself off from the press to hide his severe mental decline.
In fact, the person who mentions Biden most frequently, both in speeches and online, is Trump – even when the topic has nothing to do with his predecessor.
Asked by Fox’s Bret Baier whether Xi Jinping liked the fact that he hasn’t yet approved arms sales to Taiwan, Trump said:
"I would say ‘like’ is maybe too strong a word because he thinks I could do it with just the signing of my signature, unlike Biden who couldn’t sign his signature."
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As for the Democrats, they still have a deep well of affection for former President Barack Obama, who has emerged as the party's most prominent Trump-basher.
"We pulled it off," Obama said of Iran on one of Stephen Colbert's final shows, "without firing a missile. We got 97% of their enriched uranium out... and we didn't have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the Strait of Hormuz."
When Colbert jokingly suggested that he himself would run for president, Obama said the bar had already been lowered.
Trump – who always refers to him as "Barack Hussein Obama," for obvious reasons – has hit back hard.
Trump shared a former adviser's post that "there’s now incontrovertible evidence that he was the spearhead of a seditious conspiracy to subvert the will of the American people and overthrow the United States government back in 2016."
The president added: "I hope they arrest you before your grand opening of your war bunker in southside Chicago," referring to Obama's presidential library.
In another post, Trump called Obama "the most DEMONIC FORCE in American politics in decades."
A whole lot of Democrats, led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, will be battling Harris for the 2028 nomination. This will be the first time in 16 years that Trump's name won't be on the presidential ballot.
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Such polls are ridiculously early, given past campaign seasons when those with high name ID quickly faded once the action got under way.
If Kamala Harris is smart, she'll drop this idea of packing the Supreme Court. She can say it was just a trial balloon, one that quickly popped when FDR tried such a scheme 89 years ago.