(Big League Politics) – On Friday President Joe Biden will authorize a six-month project to explore packing the Supreme Court, placing term limits on justices, and other potential changes.
News of the bipartisan commission’s 180-day study comes courtesy of the New York Times. The commission will consist of 36 members and will be “charged with examining the history of the court, past changes to the process of nominating justices, and the potential consequences to altering the size of the nation’s highest court.”
The Times reports that Bob Bauer and Cristina Rodriguez will lead the commission. Bauer served as White House counsel for President Barack Obama, while Rodriguez served as deputy assistant attorney general within Obama’s Office of Legal Counsel.
The commission, however, will ostensibly refrain from issuing specific recommendations. Sources familiar with Biden’s thinking told the Times that the commission seeks to debate potential changes to the Supreme Court without the hostility and passions of the political sphere.
In creating the commission Biden is making good on a campaign promise. He said in an October interview on “60 Minutes” that he would convene the commission if elected and claimed that it’s “not about court packing.”
Biden has been notoriously coy about his position on the court packing issue, saying during an October town hall that he’s “not a fan, but [that] it depends” on how Trump and Congress handled the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace the deceased Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
bigleaguepolitics.com/joe-biden-creates-commission-to-explore-packing-the-supreme-court-and-term-limiting-justices/
