After repeatedly dodging questions about whether he supports calls to expand the Supreme Court, Joe Biden finally indicated that he is opposed to such drastic court reform.
Or did he?
In an interview with local Ohio news outlet Local 12 on Monday, Biden was asked about his position on adding justices to the Supreme Court.
“I’m not a fan of court-packing,” Biden said, a possible hint that his longtime opposition to court expansion has not changed.
But earlier in his answer, the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee was talking about court-packing in terms of a Democratic redefinition of the term that does not mean adding justices to the Supreme Court. They dubiously argue that court-packing can simply mean appointing ideologically friendly justices, ignoring the longstanding definition made famous by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempt to add six justices to the Supreme Court in 1937 in an attempt to secure friendly rulings on his policies.
“I respectfully suggest is what, packing, court-packing is going on now. Never before an election has already begun and millions of votes already cast has it ever been that a Supreme Court nominee was put forward. Had never happened before,” Biden said on Monday. “And one of the reasons is, the Constitution implies that the only shot the American people get to determine who will be on a lifetime employment of the Supreme Court, or federal courts, is when they pick their senator and their president, because the president names, and the Senate advises and consents. That’s the focus.”
He continued: “I’ve already spoken on — I’m not a fan of court-packing, but I’m not — I don’t want to get off on that whole issue. I want to keep focused. The president would love nothing better than to fight about whether or not I would, in fact, pack the court or not pack the court, et cetera. The focus is, why is he doing what he’s doing now?”
Republican moves to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat, despite early voting for the Nov. 3 election being underway, have prompted calls from those in the left wing of the Democratic Party to pack the court with liberal-leaning justices they favor.
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey called on Democrats to do just that in a tweet following Ginsburg’s death, as did House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York and former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Biden, his running mate California Sen. Kamala Harris, and others on his campaign have gone to great lengths to avoid answering whether Biden would support adding justices, arguing that the issue is nothing more than a fear-mongering tactic by President Trump.
Asked Friday whether voters deserve to know his stance, Biden said: “No, they don’t.”
On Saturday, Biden falsely accused Republicans of unconstitutionally moving forward with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination.
