Lindsey Graham attacks Biden and the Democrats for Supreme Court-packing attempt and accuses them of being ‘really drunk with power’
- On Thursday three members of the House and one Senator introduced a bill
- The plan was to expand the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13
- Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, immediately said it would not proceed
- Joe Biden last week launched a commission to study expanding the court
- Lindsey Graham said that the Democrats were ‘drunk on power’
- Republicans do not want the court expanded, as it is presently 6-3 conservative
Senator Lindsey Graham on Thursday accused the Democrats of being ‘drunk with power’ after they made a short-lived bid to increase the size of the Supreme Court.
Three Democrat members of the House – Jerry Nadler of New York, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee; Hank Johnson of Georgia and Mondaire Jones of New York – and one senator, Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, introduced the bill on Thursday.
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, dismissed the bill the same day, saying: ‘I have no intention to bring it to the floor.’
Expanding the Supreme Court became a rallying cry for progressive lawmakers and groups following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg just weeks before the November election.
Graham said that proposal was dangerous, and just the opening salvo in what he predicted would be a long battle.
Lindsey Graham on Thursday described the Democrat’s plan as setting a dangerous precedent
Jerry Nadler (left) and Mondaire Jones are leading the push to change the Court in the House
Hank Johnson (left) is also promoting the bill in the House, and Ed Markey in the Senate
‘We live in dangerous times at home and abroad and our friends on the left are really drunk with power right now,’ he told Martha MacCallum on Fox News.
‘The only reason Nancy Pelosi is not bringing up the court packing bill is that she knows she can’t get it through the Senate because the filibuster still exists.
‘If you want to destroy confidence in the rule of law, do what they’re proposing.’
Graham said that the bill was a slippery slope, and would usher in an era where the composition of the Supreme Court was changed to fit partisan needs.
Joe Biden established a presidential commission to examine expanding the Supreme Court
The number of justices on the Supreme Court is not specified by the Constitution, but has been settled at nine since 1869.
Until 1869, the number regularly fluctuated depending on which political party was in power, and their aims.
Under John Adams there were five: under Abraham Lincoln there were 10.
Biden himself refused to say before the election what his position was. In 1995 described efforts to expand the Supreme Court as ‘boneheaded’.
But, under pressure from progressives within his party, he said last week that he was forming a special commission to investigate the issue.
The formation of a 36-member commission was announced by the White House on April 9.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (front, second from right) opposed increasing the number of justices
The Supreme Court has had nine justices since 1869, but Democrats want to increase it to 13
Graham said it was dangerous to play with the court’s composition.
‘Every time there’s a power shift in Washington, one party takes over from the other, the number of justices change, the makeup of the court changes, it becomes a political institution that will lose respect with the American people,’ he said.
He noted that the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, like Biden, said expanding the court was a bad idea.
‘Justice Ginsberg got this right,’ he said.
He warned that a Pandora’s Box had been opened.
‘This bold, crazy idea I think people will say, ‘What about something a little bit less severe?’
‘The next thing you know, the court as we know it will cease to exist. It will be more of a political body than it’s ever been.’
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