Vice President Kamala Harris has become the most radical force against the Supreme Court in American history, pushing for a plan that goes even further than Franklin D. Roosevelt’s court-packing scheme of the 1930s, which was universally denounced and ultimately unsuccessful. This new proposal is not just about adding liberal judges or implementing term limits; it’s about completely replacing the existing conservative Justices with liberals, starting with Justice Clarence Thomas.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who has been leading the charge against the independence of the Supreme Court, claims that Harris supports his bill (S. 3096), which would require the president to appoint new Justices in their first and third years of each term for a total of up to eighteen Justices. Under this plan, only the nine most recently appointed Justices would participate in 99.9 percent of the cases that come before the Court. President Joe Biden has also proposed 18-year term limits for Justices, which aligns with Whitehouse’s proposal.
FDR’s court-packing plan was significantly less drastic than the current proposal; he simply suggested adding a Justice for every sitting Justice over the age of 70, allowing him to potentially appoint six new Justices and secure a majority that would support his New Deal programs. However, this plan did not involve disqualifying existing Justices from participating in cases.
Harris, Biden, and Whitehouse have no such qualms about removing conservative Justices from the Court. Under their plan, when President Harris appoints a Justice in 2025, Justice Thomas would be immediately disqualified from sitting on nearly every case. Then Chief Justice Roberts would be disqualified in 2027 and Justice Alito in 2029.
This proposal is clearly intended to remove constitutionalist Justices who have stood up against the left’s efforts to undermine the rule of law, injecting partisan politics into what is supposed to be an apolitical branch of government. Democrats did not express concerns about lifetime appointments or judicial ethics until President Trump appointed three conservatives to the Court, which threatened their control over the Court’s decisions.
Vice President Harris’ support for Senator Whitehouse’s bill reveals that these so-called “ethics” attacks on conservative Justices are simply a means of undermining public trust in the Supreme Court and paving the way for this dangerous plan to destroy the independence of the Court. Democrats have lost many battles over issues such as abortion, affirmative action, the Second Amendment, and presidential immunity, so they want to change the rules.
The Harris/Whitehouse bill relies on the Constitution’s provision that Congress can define exceptions to the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction. However, this power only allows Congress to deny jurisdiction to the entire Supreme Court, not individual Justices. If Democrats were successful in packing the court, the consequences would be disastrous, leading to a loss of liberties and potentially threatening our entire system of government.
Mark Paoletta is a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America. He has worked in the White House Counsel’s Office, on Justice Thomas’ confirmation, and in the Trump Administration. He also served as legal representation for Ginni Thomas during the January 6th Select Committee inquiry.