President Biden will issue an executive order Friday to form a commission to study reforms at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Biden, under pressure from liberals to expand the scope of the Supreme Court, promised to set up the commission during a ’60 minute ‘interview in October following the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The 36-member commission will be twofold and will hold public meetings to evaluate court reforms. The new panel has 180 days from the first meeting to complete its report on the pros and cons of court reforms.
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While court packaging – or the expansion of the number of judges to nine – has been the most sensational court reform discussed, Biden’s executive order wants to look at other legal changes, including the lifelong appointment of judges.
According to the White House, the commission will investigate ‘the period of service and the turnover of judges for the court; the membership and size of the court; and the case’s choice, rules and practices’.
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Biden chooses two chairs to lead the commission: New York University of Law professor Bob Bauer, former White House board member under former president Barack Obama, and Yale Law School professor Cristina Rodriguez, a former Department of State official Justice and former Justice Clerk Sandra Day O. ‘Connor.
The other members are scholars, advocates, retired members of the judiciary and advocates, including Caroline Fredrickson, the former president of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization; Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund; and Adam White, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the Conservative Federalist Society.
President Donald Trump and Amy Coney Barrett stand on the Blue Room balcony after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas awarded her the Constitutional Oath at the South Lawn of the White House White House in Washington, Monday, October 26, 2020. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky )
Biden has been fond of the idea of court packaging in the past and calls it a ‘bonehead idea’ in 1983 and said during the presidential campaign that he ‘is not a supporter of court packaging’.
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But Biden pledged to form the commission during the campaign, as Liberals were furious that former President Trump should appoint a third Supreme Court justice – Amy Coney Barrett – and Senate Republicans tracked down her confirmation in October despite the election in 2020, just a few days away. .
Progressives, including prominent lawmakers like Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., Have promised to abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court if they regain power.
In the 60-minute interview before he was elected, Biden said the court system was giving a slap and said he supported the establishment of a commission to look at ‘alternatives’ to court packaging.
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“It’s not about court packaging,” Biden said in the October 2020 interview. “There are a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated, and I have looked at what recommendations the commission can make. … There are a number of alternatives that go beyond packing them.”
Fox News’ Kellianne Jones contributed to this report.