Democrats weigh expanding lower courts after Trump blitz

[RandySF]

Democrats are mulling how to reshape the federal judiciary after Republicans moved at record speed to confirm conservative judges over the past four years.

Former President Trump, aided by a GOP-controlled Senate, set the second-fastest pace on record for judicial appointments, allowing him to stack the courts with picks, including three Supreme Court justices, who were overwhelmingly white, younger and ideologically conservative.

President Biden has 50 vacancies to fill: three on the influential circuit courts and 47 in district courts. That number will eventually grow, including an opening on the powerful D.C. circuit court once Merrick Garland is confirmed as attorney general.

As Democrats plot their strategy, they are floating expanding the number of lower court seats, an idea that could have some bipartisan support.

“I have in the city of Buffalo a huge — they don't have enough judges. There's this long line before you can get to court because they don't have enough. So we could expand those,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during a recent interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.




https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/536583-democrats-weigh-expanding-lower-courts-after-trump-blitz

[RussellCattle]

1. The increased work load of our modern day courts and the years long delays in getting a hearing.....

.....have caused advocates for justice to lobby for expanding the courts for years. Even the Supreme Court has seen such increases in it's work load that expanding the court to 11 or 13 members has it's advocates just for that reason. If we want to dilute the influence of Trump's second rate appointments, we can easily make the case that it is needed just on this basis.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. Yes, it's not just the lower courts that need expanding.