Democratic candidates for President have been noising about the idea of increasing the number of Supreme Court Justices, along with possible changes to how appointments are made, all in the hopes of reforming the Supreme Court. Candidates O’Rourke, Buttigieg, Harris, Gillibrand, and Warren have all mentioned it as a possibility.
I think this is a mistake.
It’s necessary to remember that a sizable number of Americans do not pay attention to the minutiae of government. For those of us who watch politics, the denial of a confirmation hearing to Judge Garland was a sickening symptom of the rot at the core of the current conservative movement. The subsequent awarding of the open seat to Neal Gorsuch, followed by Kennedy’s retirement and then Kavanaugh’s nomination, subsequently confirmed, was the height of dishonor for Senator McConnell, who orchestrated the tactics to retain the seat in contravention of all law and tradition, even as he and his compatriots lied about it.
But most Americans have already forgotten about these events, or, at best, they have to be reminded about them. And then they’ll just shrug about them.
So when Democratic candidates talk about changing the Supreme Court around, it’s not perceived as a matter of correcting a structural problem, but as pure & bitter politics. SCOTUS is not perceived as broken by most of America, and in politics, perception is all. This seems to be more of a matter of playing to a Democratic base that is rightfully outraged at McConnell’s dismal tactics of total war against his fellow Americans, but it’s necessary for the Democrats to remember that they have to play to the independent and moderate Republican voters, or they will continue to lose elections.
There are plenty of issues which need attention, from climate change to trade to immigration, and they need to bring innovative approaches to those problems to the voters. There’s no reason to risk alienating voters by bringing up a change to an institution which has not yet pervaded the public consciousness as needing reform – and may never do so.
