My plan to move from 9 to 13 judges in the SCOTUS.... and more....

[DirkLerxst]

All of this presupposes the Democrats win the White House and the Senate Majority.


1. At the time the Supreme Court was set to 9, there were just 9 judicial districts. There are now 13 districts, and 4 of the justices are forced to cover 2 districts each. Setting the court to 13 makes sense. It is an easily defendable premise.

2. In order to make it seem more "fair" and make it more sell-able to the public, the Democrats should propose legislation that adds two seats in 2021 and two seats in 2025. That will allow Biden to immediately nominate two judges, but also make the 2024 election a referendum on the next two.

3. In order to pass this legislation, the Democrats will have to remove the legislative filibuster. They'll take a tiny hit for it, but so what.

4. Because of #3, the Democrats in the first weeks in power will be able to:

A. Codify Roe v Wade into law with a simple majority
B. Codify the ACA *BACK* into law with a simple majority, by simply leaving off the mandate.
C. Codify DACA into law, and even expanding it to cover more people.
D. Pass legislation that defunds ICE down to a tiny organization that simply runs the border crossings.
E. Pass legislation to grant statehood to PR. It is a particular egregious crime that nearly 3 million AMERICAN CITIZENS that live in PR have no representation in the US congress. This will add at least 4 or 5 house seats and 2 senate seats. And 6 or 7 electoral votes.
F. Take all of the non-government properties in DC and give them to Virginia. This makes Virginia blue forever and gives DC residents representation in congress and the Senate. It also would probably result in at least 2 more electoral votes for Virginia and 2 or 3 more representatives with the population gain.
G. Begin to break up and eliminate DHS. Put the functions of DHS back into the DOJ/DOD and other departments they were in prior to 9/11. Creating the DHS was an overreaction to 9/11 and it has become a menace.
H. Pass a law making it possible for sitting Presidents to be indicted.
I. Repair and codify into law the firm wall between the White House and the DOJ. The DOJ should never be allowed to represent the President again.
J. Revoke almost all of Trump's executive orders related to immigration and the environment. Codify these things into law.
K. Immediately impose maximum sanctions on Russia. Everything that it is possible to sanction.
L. Codify the restoration of the Voting Rights Act. Make paper-trail voting a requirement in every state.
M. Eliminate the debt ceiling, so the GOP can never use it as a weapon against a Democratic President again.

I'm sure there are more. But these are all good ones, in my opinion.

[Louis1895]

1. How about term limits on judicial appointments?

I think having 16-year terms for Supreme Court judges would eliminate the idea of appointing relatively young judges to the Supreme Court. In turn. the country gets more experienced professionals taking the positions and the turnover would serve to balance representation on the Court.

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Has to be a constitutional amendment.

The constitution states that a Supreme Court justice will hold their Offices during good behavior. The meaning of that is they can only be removed for bad behavior.

To add term limits, you will need to update the constitution.

[Codeine]

6. Good luck with an amendment.

There’s a good reason they’re appointed for life.

[genxlib]

2. I have very mixed feelings about item "A"

It was one of my first thoughts as well. Screw them and just make it legal.

But the more I gamed it out, I worry that it is a trap. If we wrap RvW into a single federal law, then it becomes a huge target for the new supreme court.

I honestly don't know how the legal technicalities work out. But it seems like general opinion is that individual states would be allowed to make onerous anti-choice laws but it would leave the blue states as pro-choice havens. Would an umbrella federal law leave us at risk of having it struck down as not allowed in any state?

Otherwise, I generally like your proposals. It feels really aggressive without being egregious

[Frasier Balzov]

4. Why not reduce the age of Medicare eligibility to Zero?

ACA was less than half a loaf.

[standingtall]

5. All Judges should be appointed in the first two years of Biden's Presidency

as well as adding States. Waiting to 2025 to appoint Judges runs the risk of being repealed before ever going into effect if Biden isn't reelected.

[Native]

7. Great post. Gives me hope. Thanks!