what brutal event prompted the u.s. supreme court to decide how new territories were to be handled?
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020, many Americans didn't take the proper fourth dimension to grieve — instead, they panicked about what her passing meant for the future of the state. Property the balance of an entire republic is likewise bang-up a burden for anyone'south shoulders, and Justice Ginsburg had been carrying that weight for a long, long time. Instead of holding infinite for her passing, Republican politicians wasted no time in queuing up a nominee for the empty Supreme Courtroom seat, eventually landing on Amy Coney Barrett — a longtime Notre Dame Law School professor who served fewer than iii years on the Seventh Excursion before her nomination to the highest court in the American judicial organization.
In 2016, so-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell infamously vowed to cake President Obama'south outgoing Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland on the grounds that the American people should have a "vocalization" and that to blitz a nomination (and confirmation) would be to overly politicize the result. In 2020, however, McConnell didn't agree to those principles he outlined four years earlier, leading to Barrett'due south confirmation hearings and equally rushed swearing in ceremony, which took place about a week before Ballot Day on Oct 26, 2020.
This move led many to criticize McConnell, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC), who simply tweeted, "Aggrandize the court." Additionally, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (@EdMarkey), who is Ocasio-Cortez's Dark-green New Deal co-author, tweeted, "Mitch McConnell ready the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court."
The Number of Supreme Courtroom Seats Has Been Adjusted Before — Hither's How It'south Done
This phone call for a SCOTUS expansion has led many to wonder: Is such a motion even possible? The brusque answer: yes. Congress could hands alter the number of seats on the Supreme Court bench. Co-ordinate to the Supreme Court's website, "The Constitution places the power to determine the number of Justices in the hands of Congress" — just another example of those supposed checks and balances that guide a constitutional government. In fact, the number of Justices has shifted several times throughout the Courtroom'due south history. In 1789, the first Judiciary Act set the number of Justices at six; during the Civil State of war, the number of seats went up to nine and so briefly 10; and, one time President Andrew Johnson took part, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act in 1866, cutting the number of Justices to vii so that Johnson couldn't stack the court in favor of Southern states.
Since 1869, however, the Supreme Court has been composed of nine Justices. In semi-contempo history, there'due south been i notable attempt to expand the Court — 1 that will alive in infamy, so to speak. Back in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt aimed to aggrandize the Court, which kept shooting downwards some of his New Deal legislation. More specifically, FDR felt that many of the older Justices were out of touch with the times, so much so that they were colloquially dubbed the "nine erstwhile men."
FDR'southward proposal? Add one Justice to the Supreme Courtroom for every 70-yr-sometime Justice residing on the bench. That would've resulted in 15 Supreme Courtroom Justices, but even the Democrat-controlled Congress — and FDR'southward ain Vice President — were confronting the idea. Since FDR's infamous defeat, no attempt to expand or reduce the Supreme Court has gathered much steam — until now.
How Probable Is It That Democrats Will Expand the Supreme Court in 2021?
Interestingly plenty, Politico points out that President Biden has been outspoken about not expanding the court. In 2019, President Biden even went as far as saying "nosotros'll alive to rue that day [we aggrandize the Court]," arguing that an expansion would lead to constant changes — more expansions, more than reductions. In short, it would shake the American people'due south faith in the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (and potentially the Democratic party). Of course, that'due south merely one scenario — and 1 that hasn't happened in the past. Just, in the past, Vice President Kamala Harris has shown some support for the idea, proverb she'd exist "open" to it. All the same, both Vice President Harris and President Biden take as well dodged questions surrounding court-packing and Supreme Courtroom expansion.
On the other hand, more than outspoken proponents take tried to assemble momentum for the idea. Representative Ocasio-Cortez expanded upon her initial "Expand the Court" tweet, calling out Republicans' hypocrisy toward appointing new Justices during presidential election years. "Republicans practice this because they don't believe Dems have the stones to play hardball similar they do. And for a long fourth dimension they've been correct," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "Merely practise not let them neat the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn't. There is a legal process for expansion."
In the confront of a 6–3 Conservative majority, folks like Representative Ocasio-Cortez fence that the Supreme Court is out of balance — and, more than than that, it isn't quite reflective of the American people's concerns and values. So much lies in the easily of the court: the fate of the Affordable Intendance Human action, Roe v. Wade and wedlock equality, just to name a few. At present, we'll merely accept to see if this imbalance — and Barrett'south speedy appointment — are plenty to convince President Biden and members of Congress to seriously consider a Supreme Court expansion.
Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/ask-answers-expand-supreme-court?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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