President Obama today nominated three liberals to fill longstanding judicial vacancies on the important Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Will the Senate rubber-stamp the president’s nominees—even though the court’s fine as it is, with the eight judges currently serving enjoying the lightest caseload in the country? In 2006, when the Senate refused to consider the nomination of Peter Keisler to that court, Senator Ted Kennedy stressed that “we should consider these caseload declines carefully before we fill the current vacancy. American taxpayers deserve no less.” Since then, the court has only added more judges and heard fewer cases.

Or could the House weigh in? Today Congressman Tom Cotton introduced the Stop Court Packing Act, legislation that would reduce the number of judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from eleven to eight.