Here we are, less than a month before the presidential elections and Republicans are flipping out over the possibility of Joe Biden ‘packing the courts’ if he’s elected this November.
The Supreme Court is usually a winning message for Republicans. But recent polling shows that is no longer the case. 66 percent of Biden supporters listed the Supreme Court as very important to their vote as oppose to 61 percent of Trump voters, according to a Pew Research Center survey. It was an even greater margin in a CNN poll where Biden supporters led Trump supporters 47%–32%.
So, if this is a losing message why are Republicans screaming about Biden ‘packing the court’?. Its fear. Their fear of losing power completely. Their fear of being unable to stymie a Joe Biden presidency.
All the polls indicate that the Republicans are heading for a sound defeat at the ballot box in a 24 days. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz warned earlier this week that the election could be “a bloodbath of Watergate proportions” for the GOP. They will likely lose the White House, the Senate and will not regain a majority in the House, thus rendering them powerless to do anything to stop Biden from fulfilling his agenda.
This is where their fear of Biden ‘packing the courts’ comes in.
A solid conservative majority on the court is their last hope of preventing Biden from achieving any significant legislative accomplishments. A solid conservative majority has the power to upend decades of precedent making it easier to block Joe Biden and a Democratic controlled Congress from fulfilling their agenda. They could block Joe Biden from expanding Medicare or implementing his climate plan, all of which McConnell and the Republicans would be unable to do since they will be the minority.
If Biden adds at least two more justices, it takes away their ability to stymie his presidency by making Chief Justice John Roberts the swing vote on the Supreme Court once again. Republicans no longer have confidence in Roberts after he sided with the liberal justices on a number of key issues this year like DACA and to block a controversial Louisiana abortion law.
All this noise from the Republicans in the final stretch of the campaign is nothing more than a group of scared old white men crying out because they realise that they might lose power. ‘Packing the courts’ is what McConnell did when he held open seats on the federal courts under President Obama and refused to give his Supreme Court nominee a hearing until a Republican president was sworn in.
If Biden wants to add justices to the court, there’s absolutely nothing to stop him from doing so. He’s just merely unpacking the courts and as the Republicans like to say, elections have consequences.
