House and Senate Democrats announced a bill proposal Thursday on the steps of the Supreme Court seeking to expand the court by four justices, while also calling to repeal the filibuster in an effort to move the legislation forward.
Fox News’ chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream joined “The Faulkner Focus” to respond to the Democrats’ request, suggesting that abolishing the filibuster would “change everything on Capitol Hill, not just about the Supreme Court.”
Under the Democrats’ proposed plan, Biden would have the ability to appoint nominees for four additional seats on the high court, which would overcome the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority.
Bream suggested the move is an intimidation tactic by Democrats, “telling these justices, ‘You got to stop deciding things the way that you are, or the way we think you may lean, or we’re going to give you four new colleagues.”
A number of people on the Left, Bream said, have spoken publicly against packing the court, such as Justice Stephen Breyer and the late Justice ruth-bader-ginsburg” target=”_blank”>Ruth Bader Ginsburg< and made the point that “when you mess with the court and the makeup of the court, it begins to look very political, and that erodes trust.”
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The Democrats’ announcement also creates a “headache” for President Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Bream said.
Just last week, Biden announced a Supreme Court commission intended to study the pros and cons of packing the court, producing a final report in six months.
Following the Democrats’ announcement, Pelosi said Thursday, “I have no plans to bring it to the floor.”
BIDEN DOES NOT RULE OUT SUPPORT FOR DEMS’ COURT-PACKING BILL
“The speaker doesn’t seem ready to move forward with this [bill],” Bream said, “and now, yet it’s out there, and it’s going to be a headache for the Democrats to figure out how to handle this moving forward.”
In the opening statements Thursday, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said, “The court is broken because Leader Mitch McConnell, his Senate Republican colleagues, and Donald Trump broke it.”
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Bream responded by saying Democrats have mischaracterized the need for more justices, and to expect some pushback from the Supreme Court itself.
“I think, again, it’s going to get the ire of every one of those nine justices now sitting in the building, and we might hear from the chief justice pushing back on that.”
