It is hard to imagine a serious candidate for President refusing to tell you where he stands on the future of the Supreme Court of the United States, but here we are.
On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden was – once again – asked whether or not he would support legislation to pack the Supreme Court with additional Justices.
Biden’s response was, “You’ll know my position on court-packing the day after the election.”
Joe Biden Says You Have To Elect Him BEFORE He Will Admit He’ll Pack The Supreme Court pic.twitter.com/KdS0cp0dJa
— The Federalist (@FDRLST) October 9, 2020
RELATED: Biden Refuses To Reveal His Stance On Packing Supreme Court Until After Election
Biden Is Trying To Hide His Views On Court Packing
Biden’s justification for refusing to tell voters where he stands on the future of the Supreme Court until after he is elected is, in his own words, “The moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that rather than focusing on what’s happening now.”
Court-packing was attempted once before.
In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed expanding the Supreme Court to include as many as 15 justices in response to a series of rulings finding that certain parts of Roosevelt’s New Deal program were unconstitutional.
During the previous two years, the high court had struck down several key pieces of New Deal legislation on the grounds that the laws delegated an unconstitutional amount of authority to the executive branch and the federal government.
Flushed with his landslide reelection in 1936, President Roosevelt issued a proposal in February 1937 to provide retirement at full pay for all members of the court over 70.
If a justice refused to retire, an “assistant” with full voting rights was to be appointed, thus ensuring Roosevelt a liberal majority.
Most Republicans and many Democrats in Congress opposed the so-called “court-packing” plan.
Until very recently, Roosevelt’s court-packing effort was viewed as one of FDR’s most high-profile missteps and almost universally dismissed by historians and legal scholars as a terrible idea.
With her pack-the-court dodge tonight, Kamala and Joe have dodged the question 10 times: pic.twitter.com/CkOCT5MZMv
— John Kartch (@johnkartch) October 8, 2020
The current court-packing scheme is supported by liberals who once described court-packing as “institutionally corrosive” and “politically unserious.”
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Why Support Court Packing Now? The Reason Is Simple
What was institutionally corrosive has suddenly become a cause celebre on the left for one reason: conservatives are poised to take control of the Court for a generation.
The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace her poses an existential threat to liberals’ control over their favorite and most reliable weapon: the Supreme Court.
With prominent liberals pushing for court-packing and with polling showing that 60% of Democrats support the court-packing scheme, you would think that the Democratic nominee for President would take a position, one way or the other, on the issue.
Alas, Joe Biden refuses to.
Biden’s refusal, and the refusal of his running mate Kamala Harris, to take a position on the future of the Supreme Court is not simply unacceptable.
It is disqualifying.
This is why they wouldn’t answer the question, “will you pack the court”? pic.twitter.com/XJXfbnKbED
— Harold Keith (@HaroldK02614531) October 8, 2020
Democrats are telling voters that the future of same-sex marriage, healthcare, abortion, and the environment all hang in the balance as a result of the vacancy on the Supreme Court.
“You Have To Vote For Joe Biden So You Can Find Out What’s In Him”
They are doing this while their own nominee refuses to even answer the question about whether or not he would support efforts to pack the Supreme Court.
Biden’s outrageous response recalls Nancy Pelosi’s now infamous line about Obamacare:
“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
It’s absolutely preposterous. The American people deserve to know where a Presidential candidate stands on the future of the Supreme Court.
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By nominating Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump has told the American people exactly what kind of Supreme Court they would get by voting for him.
Joe Biden is refusing to do the same.
If you can’t tell voters where you stand on an issue as critical as this – you don’t deserve to be President.
