Sen. Chuck Grassley writes for the Federalist about Democrats’ dubious plans for packing the US Supreme Court to boost their left-wing policies.
With the 2026 midterms approaching and the 2028 presidential election right behind them, Democrats are raising a discredited ruse to pack the Supreme Court with additional justices.
Just last month, Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris floated the idea of Democrats packing the Supreme Court as part of a “no bad idea brainstorm.” Meanwhile, Democrats in Virginia recently threatened to pack their state Supreme Court to circumvent a ruling they didn’t like. Democrats have lit the match for this partisan firestorm and liberal elites are fanning the flames. This week The Hill published an opinion article claiming, “Expanding the Supreme Court isn’t court-packing.”
“Adding four seats under the next Democratic trifecta would actually be unpacking the court,” the author argued.
Democrats clearly need a history lesson: Court-packing was a bad idea in 1937, and it’s a bad idea in 2026. …
… During FDR’s first term, the Supreme Court ruled that several New Deal laws usurped states’ sovereignty, improperly delegated legislative power to the executive branch, violated constitutional authority by executive overreach, and unconstitutionally restricted individual liberties. The bloc of conservative justices reining in the president’s authority was known as the “Four Horsemen.”
FDR cooked up a plan to secure his agenda by reshaping the court, packing it with judges of his choosing to outflank the Constitution. In cahoots with Attorney General Homer Cummings, they hatched a plan called the Judicial Procedures Reform Act of 1937. …
… FDR’s duplicitous effort to pack the court not only breached the separation of powers, it also insulted the justices with the disingenuous assertion they couldn’t handle the workload. FDR told Congress the justices were “slow and infirm.” That raised the ire of Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes.
