Are Leftists Confused About ‘Court Packing?’
Amid the breathless, reckless and unjustified attacks on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court, many left-wing commentators have fallen all over themselves in a desperate attempt to block the nomination of one of the most superb Supreme Court candidates in American history.
Two commentators, as part of a cattle drive gaining traction among left-wingers seeking to either block or diminish the importance of President Trump’s nominee, contrary to their previous position, now argue that the attempt to confirm Judge Barrett justifies court packing.
Other unrestrained commentators argue that Republicans have been packing the courts ever since President Trump took office, simply by nominating federal district and federal appellate judges throughout the United States. Nothing could be further from the truth.
They are confusing “court packing” with filling a vacancy on any court. One is aimed at changing the ideological makeup of a court, such as adding additional seats to the Supreme Court in order to fill them with fellow left-wingers. The other is simply fulfilling the constitutional role of nominating and confirming judges and justices to fill empty seats that already exist on the courts.
Imagine this: The left is outraged and prepared to lose its collective mind, when and if a conservative president and the U.S. Senate fulfill their constitutional duty to fill vacancies either on the Supreme Court or on the lower courts. This move represents outrageous and highly retrograde analysis.
Eric Holder, former attorney general during the Obama administration, offers this illogical tweet: “This is court packing.” He made this claim last week referring to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s intention to hold a committee vote on Kathryn Mizelle, a Trump nominee for the position of U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. While Eric Holder was never a great attorney general, he has now proven beyond question that he has difficulty understanding our constitutional republic.
Such claims by Holder and others are becoming more hysterical and more falsifiable, each and every day. The American people are right to reject Holder and other commentators’ version of revisionist history that conveniently forgets that President Obama nominated hundreds of individuals for vacant federal judgeship during his tenure as president.
While some left-wing commentators rightly note that court packing is a dangerous game, they now believe that because President Trump is willing to fulfill his constitutional duty, that Court packing is the best way to restore the Supreme Court’s legitimacy. Such sophomoric analysis is exactly backwards. Previously, even Joe Biden, the Democrat Party nominee, has called court packing—the attempt to add justices in order to dilute the tilt of the court—nothing less than a “bonehead idea.”
It still is. Join us in supporting the rule of law and the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. {eoa}
For the original article, visit aclj.org.
