Joe Biden Floats Idea of 'Rotating' Supreme Court Justices if He Wins Election
Former vice president open to shifting Supreme Court justices to lower courts
© press
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden signaled he may be open to shifting Supreme Court justices to lower courts if he beats President Donald Trump in November.
During a campaign stop in Chester, Pennsylvania, Biden said:
“There is some literature among constitutional scholars about the possibility of going from one court to another court, not just always staying the whole time in the Supreme Court but I have made no judgment."
The former vice president added:
"There are just a group of serious constitutional scholars, have a number of ideas how we should proceed from this point on."
"That's what we're going to be doing," he continued.
© press
"We're going to give them 180 days God-willing if I'm elected, from the time I'm sworn in to be able to make such a recommendation," Biden added.
Jeremy Dys, Special Counsel at First Liberty, a religious liberty-focused nonprofit said if Biden rotated justices, he would be further politicizing the court.
“Rotating justices and tinkering with the way the court has been composed for 156 years is just ‘court-packing’ by another name," Dys said.
Biden's remarks came just hours after the Senate confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Democrats accused Republicans of hypocritically supporting Barrett's nomination after opposing that of Judge Merrick Garland's in 2016.
Democrats also warned Republicans that they would "regret" voting to confirm Barrett in a series of outbursts.
© press
"The Republican majority is lighting its credibility on fire," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said during a floor speech Monday.
"The next time the American people give Democrats a majority in this chamber, you will have forfeited the right to tell us how to run that majority."
"My colleagues may regret this for a lot longer than they think," Schumer added.
Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) responded to the vote by calling for packing the Supreme Court.
AOC tweeted:
“Republicans do this because they don’t believe Dems have the stones to play hardball like they do. And for a long time they’ve been correct."
"But do not let them bully the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn’t. There is a legal process for expansion.”
Republicans do this because they don’t believe Dems have the stones to play hardball like they do. And for a long time they’ve been correct. But do not let them bully the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn’t. There is a legal process for expansion.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 27, 2020
Democrat vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris also chimed in:
Today Republicans denied the will of the American people by confirming a Supreme Court justice through an illegitimate process—all in their effort to gut the Affordable Care Act and strip health care from millions with pre-existing conditions.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 27, 2020
We won’t forget this.
