Bad things happen when we get our civics from secondary sources. Let me illustrate a principle:
If you have a 6-pack of beer and drink 1 can, you no longer have a 6-pack. If you replace that can, you have a 6-pack. You are replacing the can. If you have a 6-pack of beer and you shove another can into the carton, you are packing the can into the carton. Capisce?
Replacing an empty seat on the Supreme Court is not court-packing. Don’t buy it. Adding another 1-5 Justices on to the bench is court-packing. It’s squeezing a few more seats in.
Granted, the Constitution does not specify the number of justices. Still, after going from 5-10 Justices at any given time in our Constitutional Republic’s early years, 9 Justices have sufficed since 1869. As we are commonly told by the media, these Justices do not serve for life, but “shall hold their offices during good behavior.” See Article III, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution.
Presumably, we can’t impeach justices later merely because we want the tried and true 9 justices system returned to us. Instead, another party elects a president and adds x amount of new justices. By the time you get 10-20 new justices, the Supreme Court could do whatever it wants. The court will now be packed with justices from one party that sway every opinion to the majority. If that happens, you can wave good-bye to the United States of America as we know it. Checks and balances would be gone. Say hello to a one-party rule. Can you think of countries with a one-party rule? Want you or your grandchildren to live like that? That’s what I thought. Neither do I.
The current system works and can fluctuate, as it has done, from a conservative to liberal majority and vice versa. Let’s keep our Supreme Court independent, not partisan. If we pack it in, we might as well pack it up.
This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship. ??
