As he introduced his court packing bill on Thursday, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) falsely said “Some people say we’re packing the Court. We’re not packing the Court; we’re unpacking it.”
Jerry Nadler: "We're not packing the Supreme Court, we're unpacking it"
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— America Rising (@AmericaRising) April 15, 2021
The bill aims to add an additional four justices to the Supreme Court, “packing the court” by increasing the total from nine to thirteen, a number which has not changed since 1869.
Nadler refused to answer if he planned to introduce the bill the day before, on Wednesday, when asked by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
“Just a question on an issue that concerns the Committee: It’s being reported by the DC Bureau chief of The Intercept, the gentleman, Ryan Grim — I understand that it is not only wise to believe what is said on Twitter —but he is reporting that the Democrats will be introducing legislation to expand the Supreme Court from 9 members to 13 members and that you and two of our members on this committee will be sponsoring that legislation,” Jordan asked. “Is that accurate?”
“That is not the subject of the markup,” Nadler responded, refusing to answer the question.
“Extending the Supreme Court, a report that the chairman is going to be sponsoring legislation is not something to be talked about on the House Judiciary Committee?” Jordan said. “I waited until the bill was over to ask the Chairman a question, if you don’t think it’s important about Democrats trying to extend the size of the Supreme Court — I think that’s a pretty important issue.”
#ICYMI: @ryangrim just reported that @RepJerryNadler is writing legislation to expand the Supreme Court. @Jim_Jordan asked if it was true. The Chairman wouldn’t answer.
Sounds like the Democrats are running away from the bill before it’s even introduced! https://t.co/v6PQN3XivS
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 15, 2021
The plans by Democrats to pack the Supreme Court came after Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was appointed after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Packing the court shows the respect the Democrats had for Justice Ginsburg, who was adamantly opposed to adding justices to the Supreme Court. She told NPR in an interview how “Nine seems to be a good number… I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.”
“If anything would make the court look partisan,” she added later in the interview. “It would be that — one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.’”
