Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will not vote on a Judiciary Committee proposal to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with an additional four Justices.
“No,” Pelosi said, when a reporter asked if she would be taking up fellow Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler’s proposal to increase the court to 13 justices on Thursday.
“I have no plans to bring it to the floor,” Pelosi said.
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Nadler, who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he planned to make an announcement Thursday that he would introduce legislation to increase the size of the court. Democrats want to add additional justices appointed by President Joe Biden in order to blunt the effect of the three Justices appointed by President Donald Trump.
But Pelosi, of California, said she is leaving it up to Biden, who recently signed an executive order creating a commission to examine expanding the court.
“I support the president’s commission to study such a proposal,” Pelosi said, adding that the House is busy working on infrastructure and other major legislation. “I don’t know that it is a good idea or a bad idea. I think it’s an idea that should be considered, and I think the president is taking the right approach, to have a commission study such a thing. It’s a big step.”
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Liberal groups have been pressuring Democrats to use their majorities in the House and Senate to pass legislation expanding the court. They believe Republicans unfairly skewed the court to the right by bypassing Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s high court pick (now the Biden administration’s attorney general), and by confirming Justice Amy Coney Barrett weeks before the 2020 election.
