Democratic leaders are tapping the breaks on some of the most liberal agenda items pushed by their far-left flank in the House and the Senate, including a bill to “pack” the Supreme Court.
Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw cold water on a plan by other top Democrats to introduce a bill that would expand the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13.
“I have no plans to bring it to the floor,” said Pelosi, a California Democrat.
Democratic leaders are hesitating on other liberal agenda items.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer this week suggested that a proposal to create a slavery reparations commission would best get handled by the White House and not necessarily by a vote in Congress.
Hoyer would not say when, or if, the House would vote on a bill creating a slavery reparations commission, even though the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee was poised to approve it for floor consideration later in the day.
“I would hope that the president himself would move ahead with the convening of a commission, a presidential commission, that would look at this issue and come up with suggestions as to what actions are appropriate and possible to overcome the extraordinary, extraordinary bad impact of slavery on future generations, including present generations of African Americans,” Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said on Wednesday.
Democratic leaders may be seeking to dodge politically risky votes that could overturn their narrow majority in the next election.
Polls show that voters disapprove of packing the high court, and they do not support providing reparations for slavery.
In October, a Washington Examiner/YouGov Poll found that registered voters disapproved of expanding the Supreme Court, 47% to 34%.
Reparations fare even worse in polls.
A June 2020 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 1 in 5 people support “taxpayer money to pay damages to descendants of enslaved people in the United States.”
Democrats appear to be leaning on President Joe Biden to take executive action on some of the more politically treacherous liberal agenda items.
Biden announced last week that he is establishing a commission to examine whether to expand the Supreme Court.
Biden has also indicated that he supports creating a slavery reparations commission, although he has not planned any unilateral action.
While he did not rule out a floor vote, Hoyer said he would be “urging the president to see if he can move ahead on this,” calling the reparations commission proposal “an important issue for us to be engaged with.”
By shuffling essential liberal wish list items to the Biden administration, Democratic leaders in Congress may anger their liberal base and, in particular, critical left-leaning political groups that have spent months pressuring Democrats to pass priority legislation now that they control both the House and the Senate.
“Biden commission is a noble idea, but we don’t need six months of studies to know SCOTUS is broken,” tweeted Brian Fallon, the executive director of the liberal judicial advocacy group Demand Justice.
House Democrats who support expanding the Supreme Court said that outside groups will work to produce more grassroots support, which will pressure Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to act.
The legislation has been pushed by liberal groups and the party’s most liberal lawmakers since the 2020 election. They say it’s necessary to offset the three justices confirmed during the Trump administration and rectify the GOP’s refusal to vote on Merrick Garland, whom former President Barack Obama nominated to the high court following the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
“Expand the Supreme Court like our democracy depends on it because it does,” first-term Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri said on Thursday.
But Pelosi didn’t hesitate to shoot down the idea that the House would vote on the legislation. She rejected the proposal just moments before fellow Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler was slated to announce the legislation at a press conference outside the Capitol.
Nadler, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the expansion “is a necessary step in the evolution of the court” and is needed in response to the Republicans’ treatment of Garland and their decision to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett weeks before the 2020 election.
Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said that despite Pelosi’s rejection of the bill, he will hold hearings on the Supreme Court to highlight the imbalance Democrats believe must be corrected through expansion.
“I’m expecting that if we make the case for reform, then things will align, and we’ll be able to get the legislation passed,” Johnson said. “It may not be during this session. But we’ll continue to press forward.”
