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He can't do that, court size is set by congress. If they override his veto, he can just not nominate anyone.
Thank you. Too many people here get really excited, when all they had to do was actually read the Constitution they claim to want followed literally to know what can and cannot happen. Executive orders do not turn a president into a king. The law still has to be followed.
The number of justices is prescribed by written law duly passed by Congress...in 1869. An EO trying to simply abolish a duly passed law with a wave of an executive pen would get curb stomped by the SCOTUS.
Even FDR's odious packing scheme was an attempt to introduce a law that would overrule the 1869 Judiciary Act. It failed in Congress, but even that tin pot dictator didn't try to just EO more justices onto the SCOTUS.
If the Democrats take back all three needed spots for making a law without GOP help, they are well within their legislative purview to update/abolish/amend the Judiciary Act of 1869. Any Congress can really.
The reason none do is because they know they'll start a chain reaction of endless political retribution every time the power structure changes hands, and the courts will lose any semblance of validity or integrity.
EDIT - this came in while I was typing my reply, but it echoes the thoughts:
Quote:
Originally Posted by MattCW
He can't do that, court size is set by congress. If they override his veto, he can just not nominate anyone.
Certainly a future president can try to countermand such an order and try to pack the court. But as we saw with Obama's executive orders, simply countermanding or cancelling the EOs of your predecessor can be challenged in court (as we saw with DACA). Any attempt to countermand such a directive can be tied up in court for years, and will eventually end up in the hands of SCOTUS. This alone might mitigate at least some of the harm a Biden presidency could do to this country, in the unfortunate event that such a thing happens.
Right. Ultimately, executive orders speak to issues that are within the executive's enforcement powers per the law or on areas where legislation is silent on. The Judiciary Act has set the number of Supreme Court justices at 9 for well over 100 years. Any executive order on the matter would be duplicative.
I suspect when Barrett- like all the so-called conservative justices have done- rules in favor of a couple of things palatable to liberals, the lunacy will die down and they will set their sights on when Thomas' seat becomes available.
The number of justices is prescribed by written law duly passed by Congress...in 1869. An EO trying to simply abolish a duly passed law with a wave of an executive pen would get curb stomped by the SCOTUS.
Even FDR's odious packing scheme was an attempt to introduce a law that would overrule the 1869 Judiciary Act. It failed in Congress, but even that tin pot dictator didn't try to just EO more justices onto the SCOTUS.
If the Democrats take back all three needed spots for making a law without GOP help, they are well within their legislative purview to update/abolish/amend the Judiciary Act of 1869. Any Congress can really.
The reason none do is because they know they'll start a chain reaction of endless political retribution every time the power structure changes hands, and the courts will lose any semblance of validity or integrity.
EDIT - this came in while I was typing my reply, but it echoes the thoughts:
Well, when you have one party "trumping" precedent of not confirming in an election year, in an attempt to seize more political power, said party shouldn't be surprised when the other one does the same when it comes to the number of justices. So while evangelicals are dancing in the streets over their big victory over the evil libs, their celebration may be short lived.
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