While the country gears up for college basketball’s March Madness, progressives already have their own season of silliness in full swing. The latest is a proposal to let the president (only when Democrats retake the White House, of course) add and fill additional seats on the Supreme Court. Former Attorney General Eric Holder likes the idea (let’s add two, he says), as does Democratic presidential candidate and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and several progressive groups.
Writer Wynne McLaughlin has said, “Maybe history wouldn’t have to repeat itself if we listened once in awhile.” Few seem to remember that this idea was laughed out of Congress more than 80 years ago when former President Franklin Roosevelt advanced his own court-packing plan. Roosevelt was frustrated that the Supreme Court was declaring his signature New Deal laws unconstitutional, and his remedy was to add a new justice to the court for every sitting judge older than age 70 (which included six out nine justices at the time).
